


i know i really shouldn't but i miss your touch

by ohjeezthatsme



Category: Legacies (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:28:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 33,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23559118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohjeezthatsme/pseuds/ohjeezthatsme
Summary: “You’re not Josie.”A cruel smile settled on her face while Penelope glared darkly. The smile turns smug as she struts a circle around the witch. “I have to give it to you, you got it much faster than your little friends.”-A succubus is the new monster of the week and causes chaos between two exes who definitely aren't in love or obsessed with each other. At all.
Relationships: Penelope Park/Josie Saltzman
Comments: 88
Kudos: 588





	1. I really want to see you but it hurts too much

**Author's Note:**

> Set in season 1 after 1x06
> 
> Titles taken from Almost In Love by Olivia O'Brien.

“God, I didn’t realise being the hero required so much standing around.” Lizzie’s irritated voice broke the stillness of the night.

Hope scoffed from her position leaning against a tree.

“It was your idea to come out here. I am more than happy for you to go back to your room.”

Lizzie rounded on the tribrid with a scowl, sharp words no doubt on the tip of her tongue. Before she could loose them on Hope, Josie interrupted with a gentle call of her twin’s name.

Hope quirked an eyebrow and her lips slightly curled at the edges as she watched the blonde groan, roll her eyes and spin away from the confrontation. Amused, she watched as Josie kept her eyes on her sulking twin while speaking to both of them.

“That new spell said that the latest monster would be in this area so maybe if we have a look around we’ll find it and then we can all go back before Dad notices we’re gone, okay?”

Lizzie scoffed before her sister could even finish speaking, “I think you mean until he notices Hope is gone, right?”

Hope couldn’t contain the flinch that the siphoner’s words encouraged. Josie cast a furtive glance at the tribrid, who couldn’t hold either twin’s gaze, before directing her eyes back at her bitterly triumphant sister.

They stood in a tense silence as all three of them knew that Lizzie was right but all wished that she wasn’t. 

Josie anxiously bit her lip as she tried to think of a way to ease the tension that had engulfed the trio.

A twig snapping off to the side did the job for her.

Three heads snapped to the sound and the air crackled with unreleased magic.

“Oh no, please don’t stop on my account! I’d love to see how this one ends.” 

The smirking figure stepped into view much to the anger of the three girls.

“What the hell are you doing, Penelope!”

“Oh, I think that one is pretty obvious Hope. The spell said there was a monster, right? Found it.”

Penelope’s only response was a slowly widening smirk as she kept her eye locked on a silently glaring Josie. “What’s the matter honey? Lost for words?”

Josie’s jaw clenched, “Clearly the spell was just confused between Malivore monsters and regular ones. Let’s just get out of here.”

“Hell yes, Jo. Even if a Malivore monster does pop up the only casualty is Satan.” 

Penelope quirked a brow as Lizzie paused to give her a mocking once over as she turned to follow Josie in walking to the school, “And that’s hardly a loss for anyone.”

Hope kept her eyes on Penelope as the twins walked away. The other girl had barely looked away from Josie once during the entire interaction. That was pretty typical for Penelope but something about her was putting the redhead on edge.

“What are you doing out here Penelope? Surely not even you would sink so low as to start stalking your ex at night.”

Those green eyes snap to meet hers and there’s something cold and predatory in them that has a growl forming in Hope’s throat before she controls it.

At the aborted sound, the witch only grows more arrogant.

“Easy there puppy. Didn’t you hear your friends? There are monsters in the woods.” She steps in closer to Hope and whispers mockingly, “And not all of them are as nice as me.”

Before she can decide on a response (she was partial towards a quick jab to the face), Hope heard the twins calling her name in the distance. 

With a hard look at the arrogant witch still very much in her personal space, Hope curled a lip in disgust before shouldering her way past and towards the school.

She stubbornly ignored the eyes she could feel on her the entire time and how something about them had her wolf stirring under her skin.

-

“I don’t get it! There was supposed to be some gross monster that I heroically defeat in some sort of epic battle.” Lizzie exclaimed as she powered through the halls with Josie faithfully at her side.

Clutching her books tighter, the brunette tried to keep up with her sisters long strides while not getting into anyone else's way.

“Maybe the spell was a bust.”

Lizzie rolled her eyes dramatically and let out a sound of disgust, “I think Satan counts enough as a monster for the purposes of the spell.” 

She perked up and excitedly spun around, causing the trailing brunette to stop abruptly.

“Hey! We could use the spell to _avoid_ Satan around the school!”

Startled, Josie could only gape at the excitement clear on her twin’s face. Despite her best efforts, she couldn't seem to genuinely match it. She knew that she would never be able to explain the despair that idea elicited in her and the reasons behind it.

"Just think! We'd never have to see or deal with her again!" 

She was saved from having to respond to her sister's grinning face in the form of the resident tribrid appearing suddenly.

“There you two are! I’ve been looking for you everywhere.” 

Hope looked slightly panicked and like she had, in fact, been running around the school.

Grateful for the opportunity to get the topic off of her ex-girlfriend/current it's complicated, Josie gave the panting girl her full attention and ignored the irritation creeping onto Lizzie's face. 

“Well you found us. What’s going on?”

“That spell we did for the Malivore monsters?" She paused for the twins to share a glance and nod before smiling conspiratorially. "It did work.”

A condescending scoff from the blonde had the smile slipping from her face,“Clearly you’re not as smart as you want everyone to think Mikaelson. There was no grand monster escape last night," Lizzie threw an arm in a circle to indict the three of them, "You were there, no one but the three of us and a brief demonic summoning.”

“Then why did Dr Saltzman just tell me that there was an attempt on the urn last night?” The redhead cocked her head to the side and asked saccharinely.

Josie winced at her words and knew that Hope didn’t mean to bring up the deeply flawed relationship they shared with their father. Josie could feel Lizzie’s hurt through their bond but she knew exactly how Lizzie handled feeling hurt. 

Sure enough, Lizzie’s hands clenched into fists and the muscles of her jaw jumped as she ground her teeth.

“Of course _you_ spoke to Dad this morning,” Lizzie hissed as she stepped forward, eyes blazing and hands glowing as she siphoned from her textbook. “He’s been ‘too busy’ to see his daughters for the last week but _of course_ he has time for his precious tribrid.”

Hope took a quick step back in the face of the blonde’s rage. 

As soon as the words had come out, she had regretted them. Of all people, she should have known better than to bring up the differences in each of their relationships with the headmaster. 

She raised her hands slightly as Lizzie advanced further.

“Guys…”

Hope looked to Josie for support in the face of her twin’s wrath but the brunette was glaring off to the side as she tried to control her own hurt and anger.

“Don’t bother Hope. Nothing you can say will change it so just… just don’t.” She muttered as she refused to make eye contact with either of them. 

Clearing her throat as she shoved her feelings down like always, she caught her twin’s elbow gently to stop her advance and moved next to her so that Hope faced the both of them. Lizzie sucked in a breath through clenched teeth but she did stop moving which Josie and Hope counted as a victory.

Lizzie took a deep breath. “What did our dad say about the monster?”

Hope decided to take the life line that the twins had offered.

“He said that he and Dorian are researching it but it attacked one of the vamps. They’ve been in the nurse’s office all day. This is the weird part though, they were drained.”

She almost smiled when the twins' expressions simultaneously fell into confused frowns.

“Of blood?” Josie questioned.

“No, Dr Saltzman said that as far as they can tell it was just energy that was drained, not blood.”

Lizzie paused and stared expectantly at Hope, “So… what then, the new Malivore monster is a siphoner?”

The redhead shrugged, “They don’t know.”

She swayed slightly before dragging out her next sentence, “But they’ve been spending all of their time with the vamp who got attacked, trying to figure it out that way.”

She bit her lip slightly as she raised her eyebrows at the twins. Lizzie, seemingly moving past her previous anger, gave Hope a sly smile before turning to her sister.

Josie grinned at the two sly smiles directed her way.

“Which means that there’s no one in the library to stop us from researching it for ourselves.”

“Exactly.” Hope beamed before she turned to face Lizzie with a teasing grin, “And you thought that heroics was all about standing around.”

-

Josie wanted to slam her head into her desk. She has spent the last 4 hours surrounded by textbooks detailing various monsters with nothing to show for it.

A look told her that Hope and Lizzie were in the same boat. Lizzie was balancing back on her chair with an open book resting on her face and Hope looked seconds away from turning and shredding her book.

“Alright. I think we’re done for today.”

Lizzie jolted up with snort as the book fell to the desk.

Hope turned her glare from the book to the blonde.

“Were you seriously asleep this entire time?”

“No!” Lizzie shot back incredulously. At twin disbelieving expressions, she admitted, “Maybe the last 30 minutes or so. But I totally read all about the..” She quickly glances at her dropped book, “Eastern European shaman spirits.”

Josie jumped in before Hope could recover from her irritation prompted silence. The last thing Josie felt like after 4 hours of translating ancient books was Lizzie and Hope getting into one of their patented arguments.

“Was there anything useful in there?”

Lizzie rolled her eyes and waved her hand impatiently, “Just some stuff about the locals thinking they were haunted by succubi.”

Hope threw her head back and groaned loudly. Josie’s brow creased as she rifled through her stack of books before pulling one out and flipping through the pages quickly.

Hope and Lizzie’s bickering faded into the background as Josie read rapidly. 

“- little single room and shove it!”

“What’s the matter, Lizzie? Jealous?”

“Oh please! I am _not_ jealous. I don’t need to be, right, Jo?”

Josie didn’t even try to follow their argument. Giving the distracted bickering pair a smug smirk, she solved their issue.

“It’s a succubus.”

“Exactly! It’s a succubus, Mikaelson!” Lizzie turned to point at Hope before they both paused. “Wait, what?” 

In unison they turned to a highly amused Josie. Holding in her laughter, Josie spun her book to face them.

“The monster. It’s a succubus.”

“The energy draining. God, of course it’s a succubus.” Hope facepalmed.

“Lizzie was the one to give me the idea.”

“So what I’m hearing is I’m the reason we know what the monster is? Suck it, Mikaelson,” Lizzie preened.

Hope pulled a face but held off from encouraging the gloating siphoner. “We know what it is. So now, how do we kill it?”

“The book doesn’t go into detail about weaknesses or anything. Just that it drains its victims and is incredibly hard to catch and stop.”

“Awesome.”

“Do we know where it is at least?”

“The spell worked once.”

“Alright. Let’s round up the super squad and go hunting.”

-

Twigs and leaves crunched under their feet as five teens trudged through the woods. After teasing from MG and Kaleb, the witches all carried flashlights.

As they came upon another clearing with no sign of monster activity, Kaleb turned to the rest.

“We’ve been searching all over these woods and we haven’t found squat. C’mon man, let’s just call it a night and go!”

“The locator spell is still working, so maybe we’re just not looking in the right place.” MG placated.

Kaleb rolled his eyes and frustratedly threw his arms out. “The location is the woods, man! We could search this place for days and not find ‘the right place’!”

“Kaleb’s right,” Hope decided. “The succubus could be anywhere in the woods."

Her words caused a spike in the tension of the group. They fell into tense silence as they peered into the surrounding darkness. They had been in too many dramatic fights now to not recognise the perfect entrance line for a monster.

When nothing happened or leapt out of the trees at them, Hope carried on, "The book said it was difficult to track and catch so maybe we just need to let it come to us.”

“Bait the succubus?" Lizzie snorted as she turned to Hope with a mocking expression. "With what, exactly? Gonna go grab a bunch of horny teens and hope for the best?”

“Well what’s your big idea Lizzie?" Hope bit back. "How is Lizzie Saltzman going to save the day this time?”

Lizzie took an aggressive step forward and Hope squared her shoulders. 

With worried eyes, Josie stepped into the brewing fight with a raised hand to each of them. Turning her head to each of them, Josie tried to calm the situation.

“Let’s just head back to school.” 

"Jo!”

Josie ignored Lizzie’s betrayed exclamation.

"Soon it’ll be too dark for us to see the succubus even if it was right in front of us. We can figure out how to bait it tomorrow and try again.”

The tension grew and Josie eyed both girls sternly as they decided whether they wanted to force the issue. 

Hope clenched her jaw before muttering a concession. Lizzie turned away with a huff and crossed her arms moodily.

Kaleb waited for Josie to relax her arms before he spoke up. 

“We going back to the school then? Great. See ya!”

Giving no time for anyone to respond or argue, he took off using vamp speed.

Lizzie sneered and Hope blew out an angry scoff but they both remained silent. Josie rolled her eyes at the sulking pair before turning to the only reasonable person left.

“You should probably go with him MG. We don’t know where the succubus is, but we know it’s in the woods.”

MG hesitated as he darted his eyes to indicate to the other two with wide eyed concern aimed at Josie. She gave him a soft smile in return as she jolted her head in the direction Kaleb disappeared.

“Buddy system. Gotcha.” MG nodded before he too was gone.

Josie had just turned to deal with Hope and Lizzie still acting like children when the hairs on her neck stood up.

“And then there were three.”

The super trio snapped around to face the new voice. For a time, they couldn't see anything amongst the darkness. 

A twig snapping sounded from behind them causing them to swing around. A flashlight beam caught the edge of a figure before they stepped into it casually.

“Who the- Penelope! Again?” Eager to utilise her anger, Lizzie laughed mockingly at the smirking girl.

“Lizzie,” Hope cautioned, not daring to take her eyes off the cocky witch.

“Wow, you clearly don’t handle rejecti-”

“Lizzie, stop.” Josie's quiet order broke through to her twin.

“What? Why?”

Confused, Lizzie frowned at the two next to her. Both were keeping their eyes locked on Penelope and Lizzie could feel unease flooding through their twin bond.

Hope stepped forward, drawing those amused eyes onto her rather than the twins. “Because," she stated firmly, "that’s not Penelope.” 

“You’re the succubus.” Josie's confirmation caused 'Penelope' to grin widely and throw up jazz hands.

"You caught me." The succubus sauntered closer as she spoke, "About time too. If you didn’t pick it up this time, I was going to start doubting the _super squad_.”

The mockery in her words set Josie's teeth on edge and her anger flared. She flicked her wrist and the resulting fireball encouraged Hope and Lizzie to draw their own spells.

The threat was lacking usual intimidation as the succubus laughed.

“Ooooh, I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

Even though she knew logically that it wasn't her ex-girlfriend, that same sly smile being directed at her only infuriated Josie more.

“And why the hell not,” the siphoner growled out.

“Because sweetheart, as you so _astutely_ pointed out, I’m a succubus.” 

The three teens bristled at the condescension as the succubus spoke slowly, “And what do succubus feed on?”

“If you’re about to give us some adults only cooking lesson, I’m going to barf.” Lizzie's regular snark had a strong undercurrent of rage with it.

The succubus cocked an amused eyebrow. Josie could feel the fire burn hotter as her anger fed it.

“Magic is a concentrated form of energy. And well, not to be too on the nose here but," She leaned in like she was telling them a secret, "I eat energy for breakfast.”

Josie’s face twisted into a snarl as she made to throw the fireball squarely into that smug face. A strong hand grasped her wrist and Josie felt the magic drain from her hand. Lizzie carefully stepped in front of her twin and slipped her hold from her wrist to her hand.

Lizzie kept her eyes on her sister as Josie took a deep breath to calm herself. Satisfied that Josie wasn’t about to go and start a fight with the succubus, Lizzie moved from in front of her to beside her but kept their hands clasped.

Met with fierce glares from both the twins, the succubus looked pointedly at their clasped hands with a grin as she mocks them, “You’re adorable.”

“Listen here, succubitch-”

Hope cuts Lizzie off before the blonde can hit her stride. Or before she can hit the succubus. Both were rapidly becoming strong possibilities. 

“What other time?”

Still grinning at the fuming siphoners, the succubus distractedly turns to the tribrid. “What’s that, Red?”

“You said if we didn’t know ‘this time’.

Hope felt her senses prickle at the calculating eyes currently appraising her. Her unease and discomfort in the situation caused her eyes to flash gold. She looked away from the cruel smile forming as she visibly fought to keep herself under control.

“It was you. Last night. It wasn’t Penelope at all. It was you.”

Josie’s interjection caused the succubus to drag her eyes from the redhead back to the siphoner. Josie refused to acknowledge the beat her heart skips when those familiar eyes wink at her. 

It wasn’t really Penelope but her body still reacted like it was apparently.

“I knew you would be the smart one. I thought Red over there was going to get it first but you pulled through for me.”

Josie stubbornly ignored the blush that rose as a result of a proud smile being sent her way. She had been able to mask her reactions to the real Penelope since the break up so how could a succubus wearing her face compare.

“Why did you choose Penelope?”

“This body?” The succubus strutted a short distance before striking a pose. “I didn’t choose it at all. You did.”

The succubus shoots the brunette a sultry look that is met with fiery glares from three pairs of eyes.

“God! Stop being so mysterious, no one cares! What the hell are you talking about?” 

Lizzie surprised everyone by being able to stay quiet as long as she had in the face of such an aggravating creature. The blonde was about two more shitty passes at her sister away from snapping and just letting Josie set the succubus on fire.

The succubus groaned before adopting a dry lecture tone. “Succubi take the form of the most desired of their victim. Makes it easier to feed. So you see, I couldn’t have chosen this Penelope of yours-”

“She’s not mine.”

Josie’s denial was met with a snort and a dry expression, “Yeah, I’ve been picking up on that. You still chose this body though. Or your desire did anyway.”

“Ugh, gross! Josie would never. She has moved on from that demon. Your time in Malivore must have just knocked your mojo out of wack.”

Lizzie’s dig about Malivore had the succubus baring her teeth. Her tone grew significantly colder and more cutting. She didn’t look away from Lizzie as she savagely bit out the words. 

“Looks like Josie has some soul searching to do then because her desire for this form was overwhelming.”

“You’re lying.” Josie denied everything that the succubus was saying even though it was ringing all too true in her heart.

“Mmm, nope. As much fun as this impending tantrum would be, why don’t I save us all the trouble?” All mockery and amusement died away in a flash as the succubus turned intensely serious, “You give me the urn, I leave, she starves her desires, and we all walk away satisfied.”

The succubus paused contemplatively for a second before she eyed Josie with a false sadness, “Well, not you. With how powerfully this form was set, you won’t be satisfied for a while.”

“Go fuck yourself.”

Hope gaped at the siphoner in shock while Lizzie winced. It was incredibly rare for Josie to swear outside of extremely emotional situations. Realising how close the brunette was to exploding, Lizzie and Hope simultaneously stepped in closer to try and offer Josie support. And also to stop her if she just forwent magic altogether and tried to strangle the succubus with her bare hands.

“Baby, looking this good? Someone else will gladly do that for me.” Cavalierly ignoring how close she was to a certain asskicking, the succubus waved away the implicit threat of the brunette’s growled words, “Now about that urn…”

“Not a chance.” Hope scoffed as Lizzie nodded strongly.

The two shifted into a fight stance and all three called their magic to the surface. The succubus watched with disbelieving eyes. The three of them waited anxiously for the succubus to make the first move but all she could do was gape at the trio.

“Really? Magic? Even after my whole speech.” The incredulous exclamation was shaken off as the predatory look took place once more. “Fine, I’ll get it myself.”

With that ominous parting, the succubus seemed to just fade into the shadows. Three violent spells hit the spot she was standing milliseconds before.

Staring at the wreckage left of the tree that absorbed the spells, Lizzie said what they were all thinking.

“Well that’s not good.”

-

Penelope let out an exhausted sigh as she made her way down the darkened back corridor of the school.

She had originally been planning to spend the night watching movies with MG but he was called away at the last minute on “official super squad business”. He was hesitant to tell her what the business was but a little threat to his comic bo- sorry, _graphic novel_ \- collection, and he told her everything.

She had spent the last few hours searching through what felt like every book she could find in the entire school. After finding minimal helpful information on succubi, she decided to head back to her room.

She was going to be spending the rest of the night worried about Josie off fighting monsters with only the dysfunctional super squad as backup, so she may as well do that from an area she’s comfortable.

A shadow crosses her face and Penelope looks up to see a familiar figure in the entrance to the witches dorm.

“Jojo?”

Josie turns and Penelope’s brow furrows at the barely there smirk that flashes across her face before it settles into a mask of panic as the brunette rushes to her.

“Penelope! Thank God it’s you!” Next thing she knew, she had an arm full of distressed siphoner. 

Penelope couldn’t figure out what exactly was going on but she found herself instinctively returning the tight grip.

“What’s going on? Where’s the super squad?” 

Josie pulled away at her words and Penelope was struck with a familiar longing. It had been so long since she had been able to just hold Josie and now she ruined it by asking about the super squad of all things.

“I don't know where they are.” 

“Your big plan to battle a Malivore monster is _splitting up?_ ” Penelope gaped at the siphoner in disbelief. Josie ducked her head and looked at her ex sheepishly. 

With a grin, Penelope decided to push her luck. “Though I can’t really blame you for wanting to get away from the world’s angstiest supernatural and your sister.”

“Penelope.”

“Sorry.”

“Your sincerity is overwhelming.”

Relishing in the easy banter that they hadn’t had since the break up, Penelope smiled gently before stepping in closer. “What’s going on with you Jojo?”

“I need your help.” Josie played with her hair as she avoided eye contact. Penelope tilted her head curiously as something vaguely started to form on the fringes of her mind. “We were out in the woods and we caught the succubus but then they got away.”

“I’m scared Pen.”

Penelope fought the large instinctual part of her that leapt to reassure and protect Josie. A sense of wrongness was nagging at her. The idea that had formed started to solidify but it was still fuzzy around edges.

Josie was still looking at her imploringly and Penelope tried to focus on anything beside her ex standing in front of her. She clenched her jaw and pushed back the sadness and regret building in her throat. 

She knew what would happen when she broke up with Josie and made herself the villain in her story. She knew what it would cost her to try to help Josie. So she walks the halls with confidence and pretends that the glares and hissed insults don’t crack her heart every time. 

She misses holding Josie but not as much as she misses just talking to Josie. Without any of the bitterness and hurt that goes hand in hand with all of their interactions of late. Her days were filled with pining over the girl who she broke up with to try to save her life. She would give anything to have Josie look at her without the fiery hatred she was now so accustomed to.

Penelope let out a bitter, humorless chuckle. Josie frowned and took a step back that was matched by Penelope.

“Pene-”

“You’re not Josie.”

A cruel smile settled on her face while Penelope glared darkly. The smile turns smug as she struts a circle around the witch. “I have to give it to you, you got it much faster than your little friends.”

“Where is Josie?”

“Don’t worry your pretty little head, your little siphoner is alive. For now.” Penelope keeps her eyes locked on the threat as her mind races to find a plan. The succubus bites her lip while twirling a strand of hair around her finger and Penelope rages at her body for picking _right now_ to remind her that the succubus is currently in Josie’s form.

“So how did you figure it out? With how much she clearly hates you, I wouldn’t have thought you would have been in the team huddle about the big bad succubus.”

“It wasn’t exactly difficult. It’s not like you’re convincing.”

“Ouch.” The succubus exaggeratedly put a hand to her chest. Penelope fought the urge to smirk in response, she refused to enjoy bantering with bitchy succubus ‘Josie’. 

As if she heard the witch’s thoughts, the succubus hit her with a conspirative wink. “You’re not really convincing either, you know?”

Penelope cocked a challenging eyebrow.

“Firstly, your desire for this form was so strong that I nearly fell over.” An embarrassed flush covered her cheeks, much to the succubus’ visible delight. “Secondly, for someone who isn’t dating the girl, you sure do seem to be _awfully_ invested in her life. Especially if what she says about you is true.”

“You know nothing about Josie and I.” A still blushing Penelope spat back.

“From what I heard, there is no ‘Josie and I’ and there never will be again if she has any say.” She tilted her head, giving the witch a considering look. "That's how you guessed, isn't it? Your Josie would never come to you for help. In fact, I think she would rather fight a hopeless battle than even consider you as a helpful asset."

"She would never be vulnerable enough around you to ask for help. And she definitely wouldn't be any level of relieved to see you." The succubus' cruel smile grew further as she growled towards a stony Penelope. "How does it feel? To know that all that you want, wants absolutely _nothing_ to do with you."

Penelope scowled as the succubus seemed to revel in her pain. She tensed as 'Josie' reached out a hand to lightly brush a lock of hair behind her ear. Her smile was smaller but no less cruel as she leaned in to whisper in the witch's ear.

“It must hurt to be so in love with someone who will never look at you with anything but hatred and disdain.”

Penelope’s mouth twisted into a snarl and her hands flew up swiftly.

“Figura cincinno!”

The succubus flinched back and threw protective hands up. She held that position for a minute before looking around in confusion. “That’s it? Where’s the fireworks? The pain?”

The succubus laughed before giving the raven-haired girl a mocking pout, “This is all you’ve got? No wonder the siphoner left you.”

Penelope ignored the tears threatening to fall and with a flick of her hand, the succubus was unconscious.

She stared down at the suddenly peaceful form of her ex girlfriend and hastily brushed the tears from her lashes.

-

The succubus wakes up in one of the cells. Penelope stood on the other side watching her with her arms crossed across her chest.

“If I had known that you and her would have been this aggravating, I would have targeted the other siphoner and the sulky tribrid.” The succubus threw an arm over her head and groaned.

When there was no banter returned, she lowered her arm and peered up at the silent witch. Penelope only raised an eyebrow with a slow smirk forming as the succubus rolled her eyes.

“Alright. I’m done with this.” The succubus raised herself from the bed and stalked to the bars.

Penelope’s smirk grew cockier the closer the succubus got to the bars. “Aw. What’s the matter? Not having fun anymore?”

Her snide tone wasn't missed and Penelope allowed herself a grin at the succubus' quick grimace.

Recovering quickly, the succubus pinned the witch with an amused look. “How long do you think you can stay here? Because the second someone else comes down here, I’ll be out of here in a flash.”

The witch scrunched her nose up as she pretended to think about it. “Not so sure about that one. I don’t think anyone would let the weekly bad guy out of their cell.”

“Maybe you don’t know how the whole succubus thing works-”

“No but I bet it involves changing into people that aren’t Josie.”

Penelope couldn't hold back the vindictive pleasure she got from interrupting the condescending drawl with such a bomb. Her grin grew to a full smile as the reality of the situation slowly dawned on the succubus.

“What.”

“Please, go ahead.” She waved a hand, encouraging the succubus.

The form of Josie quivered for a moment before it stilled. Penelope couldn't help the cutting laugh that escaped her as 'Josie's' face reflected her horror and growing rage.

The succubus snapped her head up at the laughter and she hurled herself into the bars separating the two. “What the hell have you done!”

“Remember that spell that you thought was a failure?” Not flinching, Penelope leaned towards the crazed succubus with a mocking expression. “How’s it feeling now?”

“I am going to tear you apart.”

“Ooh, now you’re starting to sound like Josie.” Penelope laughed as she turned her back on the caged monster and went to leave. 

She froze midstep as the succubus called after her. Her hands clenched into tight fists at her side and her jaw muscle was working furiously.

“You mean the one who despises you? Because she surely doesn’t love you. She doesn’t even _like_ you!"

Smiling victoriously at the effect her words were having on the witch, the succubus pressed on. “Tell me, what is it like to be so hated by someone you want so badly?" She laughed callously as a spark flew from Penelope's fist, "No, really, I want to know.”

"Shut the fuck up." Penelope threatened darkly as she took a step towards the bars.

“You should be _overjoyed_ that I’m here because this is going to be the closest you will _ever_ get to your precious little Josie.” 

A snarl drifted across Penelope’s face as the succubus stared back at her. The succubus smirked and pushed herself off the bars as Penelope took another step and began to raise her hand. 

The witch paused, she wanted to hurt the succubus. She glared hard at the smirking succubus. She really wanted to hurt the succubus. So, _so_ much. But even with all of that, if there was one thing that Penelope understood it was manipulating emotions. And she was definitely being manipulated right now.

“You feed off of other people. How long do you need to be down here alone before you starve?” Penelope questioned harshly. She turned and walked to the door, tossing one last quip over her shoulder.

“Guess we’re about to find out.”

Not understanding when she had lost her edge over the witch, the succubus gaped at her retreating figure. “You’re just going to leave me down here?”

Her only response was the echoing footsteps of Penelope fading away. The succubus rattled futilely against the bars of her cage.

“Penelope!”

The only response to her increasingly desperate calls was the loud slam of the door leading to the cells.

-

Quiet thudding filled the hall as Lizzie, Josie and Hope marched through looking for any sign of their missing monster. They came to an uncertain stop at a fork in the hall, each swinging their flashlight down a different path.

“Okay, if I was an angry monster stuck in a hellpit for who knows how long and hellbent on literally unleashing a black pit of doom on the world, where would I be?” Hope spun in a circle and peered ahead as if she would be able to see the succubus’ location if she squinted hard enough.

“Whatever your face is doing, you should stop it. It’ll only give you premature wrinkles and I, for one, think you have enough problems.”

“Thank you for your insight, Lizzie. But seeing as we are currently tracking an escaped succubus loose somewhere in a school full of horny teenagers, I think we all have bigger problems than me getting wrinkles.”

The blonde rolled her eyes but didn’t respond as Hope turned her back on her to end their exchange. She turned to her sister to get a little support but Josie was looking off to the side and seemed distracted. Through their twin bond, Lizzie could feel a storm of confusion and a lot of anger.

Figuring that what the succubus had said in the woods had thrown her sister into her head while also dredging up a lot of her bad memories. Lizzie sighed internally. She would rather watch some nerd movie marathon with Hope’s 00’s emo bassplayer of a boyfriend and Wade than deal with an angry, hurt Josie.

Before she could move to bring her sister’s head back into the game, the worst possible voice rang out from the shadows.

“Finally. The great witches I’ve been looking for. And Lizzie and Hope.”

“For fuck’s sake.” The mutter came unprompted from the blonde as a smirking Penelope materialised out of the shadows.

As soon as she appeared, she was forced to bring up a shield to absorb the spells hurled at her. “Well, I wasn’t expecting a hug but damn!”

“Oh, I’m sorry, were you expecting us to just hand you the urn?”

“Why would I want the urn?” Penelope frowned before realization struck. “I’m not from malivore.”

Lizzie scoffed, “Of course not. You’re straight from hell.”

“You’ve been saying that for years Saltzman but I would never try to infringe on your home turf.” Hope dropped her defensive stance as Lizzie slowly followed suit. 

Josie, however, stepped forward aggressively and snarled at her ex. “What do you want?”

“I need to tell you-”

“And why would we care what you need?” Her emotions were already unstable after her interaction with the succubus and now being confronted with her actual ex-girlfriend standing right in front of her, Josie was losing control.

“Jo-”

“No!” Josie interrupted Penelope’s low plea. Ignoring the raised eyebrows and shock from Hope and Lizzie, she advanced on the raven-haired witch with a fierce growl. ”You don’t get to talk to me anymore.”

“Oh, wow.” Hope uncomfortably shifted as she awkwardly flicked her eyes between the two exes. She cut her eyes to Lizzie who looked far less awkward than the tribrid herself felt. “Maybe we should just-”

“Stay right here? Yeah, I’m thinking we should stay right here.” Lizzie couldn’t draw her eyes from the scene that was quickly unfolding in front of them. She had absolutely no desire to get in the way of Josie when her sister lost control of her anger but she had no qualms about it being turned onto her sister's evil ex.

“Josie. It’s about the-”

“I don’t care!” Her voice broke as Penelope took a startled step back. Josie ignored the shake in her voice and the hurt in Penelope’s eyes. “What about any of this makes you think that I care about, or need, _anything_ from you anymore?”

Penelope swallowed and looked at her feet. Josie ignored the small spike of guilt that welled within her, it wasn’t hard to ignore when she had an abundance of anger to draw from. Penelope glanced up at the brunette with sorrowful eyes. “Josie…”

“Don’t you get it, Park? We don’t need your help!” An awkward silence fell over the group after her shout. Josie and Penelope locked gaze didn’t falter as Josie ground her teeth in anger and Penelope’s jaw twitched as she held back.

Hope eyed Josie before cautiously stepping towards Penelope. “But if you do have anything that helps…”

“No!” Josie snapped her head towards the tribrid who took a quick breath.

“Josie, stopping this monster is more important.” Hope implored.

“And you think she’s going to help?” Josie pointed at the witch in question viciously. Penelope avoided their eyes by turning her head to the side. “Maybe you’ve forgotten, but Penelope never helps anyone but herself. There is only one person she ever thinks about.”

Penelope turned desperate eyes onto the siphoner. She shifted her weight to move forward but a glare from Josie kept her still. “Josie, I just want to help.”

“What part of this are you not getting?” Josie matched her low tone and stepped forward with a thunderous frown. “I do not care what you want.”

Penelope’s tongue darted out to wet her lips. Josie felt a dark pleasure twist within her at the pain in her eyes. Finally, she felt like she wasn’t the weak one in the wrecked aftermath of their relationship. It was this darkness that drove her next words.

“Matter of fact, I not only don’t care about what you want, I also no longer care about you.” Josie hit every sore spot she knew that Penelope still had for her. The pain written clearly on Penelope’s face spurred her on. 

She moved in closer and dropped her voice low enough to mimic the tone she used to utter sweet nothings with. “I wish we had never dated and I wish that I had never loved you.”

“Ohhhh.” Lizzie took an involuntary step back as Hope let out a quiet hiss. Lizzie had surprised even herself when she realised she was no longer enjoying watching her sister tear down Penelope Park. There was something tragic about the way Penelope just seemed to accept Josie’s hatred and scorn with nothing but quiet pleas to listen.

“Right. Of course.” Penelope’s voice was subdued and quiet and she nodded lightly before glancing back up at Josie’s raging stare with regretful, teary eyes. “I get it.”

Josie refused to give in to the guilt and regret that was growing stronger by the second. Forcing down those emotions, she raised her head and squared her shoulders. “If you got it, you wouldn’t still be standing here.”

Penelope cleared her throat before pulling back together a weak mask to hide her devastation.“Don’t worry, I’m already gone.” 

She spun to disappear once more into the shadows before she paused and looked over her shoulder at the three of them. “I just thought I should tell you that your little succubus is locked up downstairs.”

“What? _You_ found the succubus?” Lizzie ignored the tangled mess of emotions she was stepping to as she interjected.

Hope stayed where she was but also shot the witch a questioning look. “You knew that it was a succubus? How?”

“Doesn’t matter. I should have known to leave it to the core group of Salvatore heroes.” Penelope’s hurt cut an undercurrent through the scorn that flooded her delivery. “Your succubus is down in the cells. I’ll leave it to the super trio to decide what they want to do.”

Hope rolled her eyes. “They’re werewolf transformation spaces. Wait, Penelope- Aaand, she’s gone.” The tribrid turned from the non-existent form of the witch to a still steaming Josie. “You don’t think that was a little harsh?”

“Since when have you cared about Penelope Park’s feelings?” Josie turned to the redhead with a pissed raised eyebrow. She fiercely ignores the guilt washing over her for lashing out at Penelope and focuses only on the anger.

Lizzie stepped between her increasingly agitated sister and the redhead. “Okay, you’re right.”

“Why are you guys on her side?” Josie forced out. It was like the other two were speaking to all of her guilt and regret over lashing out at the raven haired witch.

“We’re not!” Lizzie exclaimed before flicking a leading look over her shoulder, “Are we, Hope?”

“Uhhhh, no?” Hope tentatively offered. Lizzie widened her eyes and nodded slightly. Picking up on the blonde’s not at all subtle hints, Hope shook her head with wide eyes, “No.”

Josie just sighed and looked away from the two of them. “Let’s go see what’s in those cells.”

“I doubt it’s the actual monster. I mean, it can’t get past the three of us just to get caught by a singular she-demon.” Lizzie sassed as she tried to take on Josie’s usual role of easing the tension.

“Let’s just go.” Josie walked off down the hall that leads to the basement.

Lizzie watched her twin march off before leaning towards the silent tribrid. “Is it weird that right now I’m more scared of her than of whatever is stuck in those cells?”

“Werewolf transformation spaces.” Hope argued automatically before catching Lizzie’s skeptical look.

The redhead rolled her eyes before giving in to the truth of the situation. “Okay, fine. It’s a cell and you should be scared.”


	2. you moved on, but i never could

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone for the massively positive response!
> 
> All of the comments and the kudos were very much appreciated. I annoyed my sister to death bc I showed her every email from a03 about new comments or kudos. Also bc I made her read and re-read my fic minimum 70k times, which, on the off-chance she reads this, thx bud!
> 
> (p.s. i have never been wrong about anything in my life, ever. except for any mistakes you may or may not find in this fic.)

Josie storms through the halls towards the basement. 

Hope and Lizzie, who were following behind closely, continue to share frantic looks as they catch furious snippets and phrases from Josie's barely contained muttering.

Hope widens her eyes at Lizzie and jerks her head towards the brunette. It was clearly time for  _ someone _ to intervene, lest they be left with a school on fire at the hands of an infuriated siphoner. And who better than her very own twin?

Lizzie dares a glance at Josie. Every light she marches past flickers and Lizzie doesn't even want to think about touching their bond. She can feel Josie's radiating fury without any special twin insight.

Her muttering has increased in speed and volume but still all they could catch was the odd curse and Penelope's name.

The blonde took all of that into account before she turns to the hopeful face of the tribrid and calmly mouths 'No way in hell.'

The redhead gapes for a moment but the blonde carries on as if nothing had occurred. Hope rolls her eyes and steps forward to slide in front of Josie just before the siphoner reaches the door to the basement.

“Heeeeey Jo,” She draws out in a soothing, not at all panicked voice with a wide smile, “Why don’t I go down first?”

“Why?” Josie says shortly. She looks between the two with distrusting eyes.

Lizzie cuts in nervously, “Because, in certain lighting, at this particular time, some may say that you’re sporting something of a strong risk of homicide vibe?”

Josie sends her a look that immediately has Lizzie backtracking. “That’s just what Hope told me, I, personally, think that you look very peaceful and calm.”

Hope could only gape in disbelief as Lizzie gestured her sister towards the door with a wide, false smile. “After you!”

“What, no!” The redhead exclaims. She grabs Lizzie by the elbow and hisses, “What the hell are you doing?”

“You saw her back there, you really want to get in the way of that?” Lizzie gets out from between her teeth as she continues to smile insanely at her sister.

“Not particularly! But look at her- Oh god, where is she?” Hope spun from Lizzie to the now empty hallway.

Lizzie peeks over Hope's head and gasps. “The door’s open!”

They share a panic driven look before shoving at each other to get down the stairs. Hope bursts through first only to come to a halt when she sees the occupant of the cell.

“Josie?” Lizzie questions from behind the stunned tribrid. The blonde raises an eyebrow between the redhead and her sister in the cell. “Really Mikaelson? You were so concerned that you put her in the cell?”

Hope throws her hands up, exasperated. “No!”

“Lizzie, I’m behind you.” Josie states from her position leaning against the wall opposite the cell.

“Oh, right.” Lizzie accepts before doing a double take at the cell. “Wait, but if you’re there than that’s-”

“The succubus.”

The droll simultaneous answers from the other three cause Lizzie to roll her eyes. She points at the succubus in Josie form, “Firstly, you shut up,” The succubus blows a kiss and receives a middle finger in return, “Secondly, Hope’s into Josie?”

“Again, no!” Hope vehemently denies.

Josie's lips twitch and her brow raises. “Wow.” 

“No, no, not that you’re not great. You are! And totally crushable!” Hope rushes to reassure an amused Josie, her mouth moving a lot faster than her brain and showing no signs of stopping. “In an ‘I have a crush way’ but I don’t. Have a crush. On you, that is.”

Hope trails off, horrified. She doesn't dare move her gaze from the floor as mortification floods her system. Josie is watching with growing amusement while Lizzie is torn between amusement and strong embarrassment.

A low whistle shatters the stillness that Hope was hoping would make her invisible. Three pairs of eyes turn to the succubus who leans against the bars and winks at Hope.

“Smoothly done. I thought you were going to fall apart in a rambling mess but you really pulled it together.”

A beetroot flush creeping over her face, Hope tries to affect a threatening glare. “Shut up.”

“So if you don’t have a crush, you're just lusting after my sister?” Lizzie presses.

“What! No!” The redhead splutters.

Lizzie scoffs and thrusts an accusatory finger at the ‘Josie’ in the cell. “There is a succubus, right there," The creature in question gives a jaunty wave with an entertained grin, "In Josie’s form and that’s sure as hell not coming from me!”

“I do not want to have sex with Josie!” Hope shouts. Her eyes widen as she realizes her words and she wheels to Josie once more with placating hands, “Not that you’re not-”

“Hope.” She acknowledges the brunette's interruption with a grateful whimper. Josie has a small smile on her face as she moves toward the cell. “You can stop, I know the succubus didn’t get it from you. I was here first.”

Josie shifts quickly from the reassurance she was using for Hope to a cold tone directed at their prisoner. “So you’re just morphing into us to... what? Annoy us into letting you out?”

Lizzie holds up a hand to interrupt. “I know this is supposed to be a good thing, but I can’t be the only one annoyed that Penelope actually caught the monster, right?”

She backs down with splayed arms as Hope and Josie both shoot her a rebuking look. 

From her cell, the succubus groans, “Trust me. No one is more annoyed by that than me.”

Hope pipes up with a strong glare. “Your opinion doesn’t count.”

"Aw. Come on baby, don't be like that." The low, sardonic drawl reignited Hope's red flush.

Josie was torn between pity for Hope and rage at the succubus for treating this all like a joke. 

“How did she even catch you? I thought you ate magic for breakfast?” With a curled upper lip, the siphoner threw the succubus' words back at her.

“She tricked me, knocked me out and then I woke up in this  _ lovely _ cell.” Teeth bared, the succubus looked every bit the danger she was. The faint rumble of a growl coming from Hope didn’t soothe any of the trio. 

Quick as it came, the anger that had pulsed off of the succubus was buried under a layer of charm and deflected with an arrogant grin. “But please, enough about me. What happened to you, hot stuff?”

Hope and Lizzie exchanged nervous looks behind as the succubus winked at Josie. They had no desire to open this can of worms but the succubus either didn’t pick up on that, or, far more likely, thoroughly enjoyed getting under Josie’s skin.

“You look angrier than the last time I saw you.” Josie’s jaw ticked at the reminder. Something that didn’t escape the succubus’ notice. With a delighted smirk, she continued. “And you tried to fry me then, so you can see while I’m a little nervous.” 

Josie didn't say a word. There were cracks beginning to show in the succubus’ performance. The anger that had flashed to the surface briefly was still burning in her eyes and Josie could recognise the tension thrumming through its body despite the relaxed facade.

Whatever had happened between Penelope and the succubus to get her in the cell, it had pissed the succubus off in a major way. 

“As you can no doubt tell,” The succubus continued, gesturing at the form she inhabited, “I have already had a bad evening.”

The siphoner wasn’t used to seeing herself looking so cocky. She also wasn’t used to wanting to punch an exact replica of her face so badly either.

“Why do you still look like Josie?” Hope puzzled.

“Why, Red?” The succubus gave her a pitying look, “You want to stumble through another ramble about how it’s not her, it’s you?”

The tribrid stuttered out a denial before looking for support from the twins. Lizzie had a hand over her mouth and was clearly busy trying to stifle a laugh, so it was up to Josie.

“Hope’s right.” The brunette ignored the scoff from Lizzie and the gag from the succubus. “You should have started taunting us by now. That or have switched into a body more fit for taunting us.”

Josie didn’t add how badly she wanted the succubus to change out of her form. A corner of her mind kept going over the fight in the hall and feeding into her guilt, making it strong enough to break through the haze of rage that the brunette had been using to fuel herself. Even as she focused on the succubus, the guilt and regret that her anger had been suppressing kept bubbling up. She didn’t want to have to stare into her own face and have her mocking and callousness reflected back at her. 

She didn’t want to think about how this is what she may have looked like to Penelope.

And she especially didn’t want to think about how she had maybe been directing all of her rage and blame at the wrong person.

She set her jaw and refocused on the succubus who was staring at her with a knowing glint in her eyes. 

The succubus’ lips stretched into a smile that had a thick predatory edge to it. “I would love nothing more than to do exactly that. But, thanks to your little friend, I am stuck in  _ this _ .”

Josie’s jaw ticked at the disgust that had saturated the last word. She knew that the succubus was baiting them so the brunette just clenched her fists and bit her cheek until she tasted blood. Dark eyes danced with amusement as they took in her reaction.

Lizzie, however, wasn’t known for taking the high road. “Well, you don’t need to be rude about it. You should be so lucky to look half as good as Jo, you washed up, shrivelled bitch.”

Before the succubus could respond to Lizzie’s aggressive defence of her honour, Josie stepped so that she was directly between the blonde and the succubus.

The succubus had perked up with a grin when Lizzie had snapped at her but now that Josie had stepped between them, she rolled her eyes and sauntered away from the bars.

“Penelope trapped you looking like me?” Josie’s question only mustered a dismissive hum from the lounging succubus as she inspected her nails.

“How?”

The succubus let out a frustrated sigh.

This was why she hated having to work with teenagers. Were they nonstop little hormone batteries? Yes. But was the constant power source honestly worth all of their emotional baggage? So far, no. Nonetheless, she needed them for the moment. “By being irritatingly observant and self-aware.”

Hope threw her head back and groaned. “Why are they always cryptic?”

“Because some of us spent centuries in total isolated darkness.” The succubus snapped, turning to Hope with a sneer. “Try it sometime and see how cryptic you get.”

Lizzie scoffed and scrunched her brow. “No thanks. She’s already broody, she doesn’t need to add to the mystique.”

“All of you stop.” Hope opened her mouth to retort but was stopped by Josie’s stern instruction.

The siphoner stepped closer to the cell. “How did Penelope get you in that cell?”

A condescending eyebrow raised alongside a mocking grin, “I already told you-”

Josie cut in. “You don’t want to go back into isolated darkness? Tell me what I want to know or I’ll hit the lights and walk out.” She didn’t blink as she delivered her low threat. The succubus’ mouth twitched and Josie pressed on the fear that she had just struck. “You’ll be alone. Again.”

“You two really do make quite the pair.” The succubus smiled grimly. Josie watched on expectantly as the succubus resituated herself so that she was sitting propped against the bars.

With her eyes closed, the succubus leant her head back against the bars and began, “I ran into her in the hallway, she figured out I was the big bad succubus, hit me with a couple of spells and then I woke up here. We had a fun conversation and then she left.” The succubus paused, opening her eyes and flicking them to the watching siphoner, “I imagine, to go running straight to you.”

Josie ignored the pleased twist that the idea brought her. She shook her head, “Doesn’t explain why you look like me.”

“You’re kidding.” The dry, disbelieving words and incredulous look had no effect on Josie as she simply cocked an eyebrow. Barely resisting the urge to slam her head against the wall, the succubus let out an exasperated exhale. “Teenagers.” 

Fixing the siphoner with a look that screamed of her irritation at the situation, the succubus drily explained. “I look like you for the same reason I looked like her in the woods.” At Josie's blank expression, the succubus rolled her eyes before leaning forward and slowly stating the obvious., 

“Ultimate temptation.”

Josie reacted like she had been struck. Her breathing quickened and a thunderous scowl quickly formed, “You’re lying.” She spat.

“Maybe. Maybe not." The succubus shrugged nonchalantly as she rose from the floor and turned her back on the bars. "Either way, sweetheart, I’m done talking to you.”

“What?” Hope, who had been hanging back from the interrogation with Lizzie, frowned at the statement.

“I’m bored of you three. You’re all predictable." Scorn dripping from her words, the succubus spun to face them. “You want me to talk? Get the witch who put me here.”

Hope's efforts to puzzle out the situation were written plainly on her face. Warily, she questioned the succubus, “Why would you want to talk to Penelope?”

“Why would anyone?” Lizzie said, disgusted at the very idea.

Her derision was met with a swift elbow to the ribs from Hope. Scowling at the redhead who widened her eyes in Josie’s direction, Lizzie fell into a sulky silence.

“Because it’s not exactly common for me to be caught out when I don’t want to be.” The succubus answers snidely. It was bad enough that she had somehow been trapped here, but being questioned by these three? Unnecessary torture. Knowing they would need the obvious stated to them, she continued, “Being locked into a form like this, is practically unheard of.”

Josie had been silently wrapping her head around the idea that  _ she _ was supposed to be the ‘ultimate temptation’ for Penelope. It was hard to connect that with what she  _ knows _ to be true. And what she knows is that Penelope left her. Told her that she didn’t love her anymore, that Josie wasn’t what she wanted, and then she walked away while Josie tried to gather the shattered and cutting remains of her heart.

Combined with the raven-haired witch spending the following months antagonising both of the Saltzman’s, it was difficult to believe that Penelope cared for her at all.  _ But she did. So much that maybe she couldn’t bring herself to leave you completely,  _ a traitorous little voice whispered from a deeply buried mental box of hopes.

Josie frowned as she gave the fleeting hope a thought. That same little voice grew braver and flashes of Penelope coming to her, saving her, and kissing her on her birthday flew through her mind. The pain etched across her face as Josie berated her in the hall, the constant gleam in her eyes and the ready smirk whenever they locked eyes during classes. Unwilling to try and fight it down this time, Josie clung to the small spark of hope that had bloomed.

The brunette was broken from her reverie by the succubus’ confident words. “I just want to chat with the girl.”

A strong protective instinct surged in her chest. “No.”

Ignoring the curious looks her fierce denial prompted from Lizzie and Hope, Josie stared down the succubus.

“Then I’m done.” With a smirk, the succubus turned from them once more and settled herself on her bed in a meditative pose.

Hope gave Josie a pleading look and even Lizzie anxiously bit her lip but neither sought to outright argue with the brunette.

“You’re just going to sit in there? In silence?” Lizzie tries desperately. The succubus smiles and exaggerates her movements as she settles herself in.

“I can wait. I have centuries of practice. And besides,” Josie feels her lip twitch into a snarl, not liking the gleam that was being directed her way. The succubus locks eyes and smirks, “She seems like the kind worth waiting for. Don’t you think?" 

Josie feels her magic leap out of control at the words. Unconsciously siphoning from the very foundations of the school, she doesn't notice the walls shaking and Lizzie grabs her arm to siphon away what she can.

Even with Lizzie taking the magic as fast as Josie draws it in, the lights sputter and some explode. She slams her eyes shut as she tries to control the storm of emotionally charged magic that floods the basement. 

The swirl of magic calms and Lizzie cautiously releases her hold. Josie slowly opens her eyes to see a grinning succubus.

"Good thing that there's nothing unresolved with your witch. Oh wait, I forgot." Her grin morphs to a cruel smirk, "She's not yours anymore, is she?"

A snarl from Hope tore through the room while Lizzie loudly swore at the succubus. Josie stared at the smug visage of herself before spinning on her heel and marching out of the cells, ignoring the echoing calls of her name.

-

After she got out of the basement, Josie just chose a direction and walked. She had no plan aside from getting out of there. The taunting stirred up everything that she had worked so hard to move on from.

She had convinced herself that the only feelings she had for Penelope were disdain, anger and hate. She had buried her feelings of love and want for her deep in the darkest corner of her mind where she could wall them up and ignore that they ever existed.

That wall had begun to crumble on her birthday. Firstly when Penelope came to her before the party and then again when she saved her and Josie gave in to the desire that still ran strong and deep through her veins.

Foolishly, she had clung to the anger and disdain towards the raven-haired witch in the hopes of protecting herself from another heartbreak. Hoping that reminding herself of the pain Penelope had caused would stop her from falling for her again.

"Josie!" She turned at her sister's voice, a frazzled looking Lizzie came jogging down the hall towards her. "We need to talk."

"Lizzie, I don't really want to-" Josie started.

Determination written plain across her face, Lizzie interrupted. "We're going to get Satan to talk to the succubus."

Josie lurched forward, "What? No, she can't! Why would you even think of that?"

Lizzie squared her shoulders. She knew that convincing Josie that they needed Penelope wasn't going to be easy. She had been volatile about anything concerning her ex since the succubus had appeared.

Keeping calm under Josie's heavy glare, Lizzie softened her voice. "Because ol' succubitch down there wasn't joking about her vow of silence." Josie ducked her head but the blonde moved so that their eye contact held. If she could get across to Josie how important this was, it would make her life easier. "We need to know more about these monsters and Penelope can get us that. We're going to use her."

Josie was shaking her head before Lizzie had even finished but balked at her last words. "No."

"Jo-"

"I've used her enough."

Patience running thin, Lizzie threw her hands up. "What are you talking about? Your one-sided shouting match in the hall?" She smiled encouragingly, "Jo, that was great! We hate her."

Josie looked down and toed at the floor. Her bottom lip between her teeth, the brunette hesitated before answering softly. "Maybe I don't."

Lizzie steamed right over the response with a dismissive wave and eye roll. "Of course you do. She broke your heart and uses her powers of darkness to be the constant thorn in our sides. She's literally Satan."

Lizzie scowled as Josie continued to avoid her eyes. She knew what that avoidance meant. She eyed her sister warily and searched for their bond. Her eyes flashed angrily when she had her answer.

"Fine." Josie winced as Lizzie spat the word out. Anger driven sarcasm thick in her voice, Lizzie continued, "Why don't you help us find her and then the two of you can hash it all out. You can go running back to her and she can break your heart again."

Josie gave her sister a wounded look, "That's not fair." She said quietly.

Lizzie let out a disbelieving laugh. "Isn't it? I felt everything you did when you two broke up, remember?"

"Lizzie…"

"Okay. Okay, fine." She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and tried some of the meditative techniques her father passed on when he felt like spending time with her. "You need to figure out how you feel before you try anything with the antichrist." She waited for Josie's hesitant nod before continuing, "We're going to figure this all out, we're just going to start with the monster in the cell.”

Lizzie rested her hands on Josie’s shoulders with a small smile. “So we're going to find she-who-must-not-be-named and get her in front of the cell. Everything else will work out."

Josie pouted. "Will it? This is all a mess."

"That's true." Lizzie stated. She shrugged defensively at the offended look sent her way, "It is! That doesn't mean that you can't fix it. Mum always says that you can fix anything if you care enough."

Josie sucked her lip into her mouth. Did she care enough? That seemed to be the big question. Lizzie was right, this wasn’t going to be something that she could do half-heartedly. If she was going to try and fix things between herself and Penelope, she had to be absolutely, 100% sure. 

Her lips twitched into a small, shy smile as she glanced up from beneath her lashes at an expectant Lizzie, "I think I do."

The blonde rolled her eyes, not caring much for Josie’s emotional revelation that was obvious to everyone but the brunette and Penelope."Great, loving the enthusiasm. Now, go find her."

Josie returned the eye roll as Lizzie used the hands still on her shoulders to spin her and shove her down the hallway. Still in wonder of her recent self discovery, Josie was more than happy to seek the other witch out. 

"Don't forget to bring her to the basement in one piece!"

Lizzie’s teasing shout echoed down the halls and brought a light blush to Josie’s face as she tucked her head and started walking faster. 

-

Penelope stares blindly out over the forest as she raises the bottle to her lips again. 

She had lost track of how long she had been on the roof. After running from Josie, she went straight to the headmaster’s office and pilfered the bottles he kept there. From there, it just seemed poetic to head to the spot that she and Josie had claimed as theirs during their relationship.

The tears push insistently at her eyes but Penelope holds them off. She lets herself pretend that the tears were a result of the whiskey burning down her throat and not the pain roaring in her chest.

“I’m quite sure that you shouldn’t be sitting that close to the edge of a roof. Especially when drinking.”

Penelope lets her face morph into her classic mocking smirk. “How else will I be able to fully express my deep teenage pain?”

She listens to the intruder scoff lightly as they walk closer. She keeps her eyes on the trees until she feels them sit next to her and take the bottle that was dangling lightly from her fingers.

“Well, you’ve certainly got the drowning your sorrows part down. Where’d you even get this?” Out of the corner of her eye, Penelope watches as the vampire inspects the stolen bottle with a disapproving frown.

“Better question, how and why are you here?” Penelope’s head rolled loosely to face Caroline and she puts on an exaggeratedly serious tone, “Do your children know you’re with such a bad influence?”

Caroline looks back at her sadly.

Penelope bites down on her tongue to stop herself from cursing the vampire. She doesn’t want pity, especially not from Caroline Forbes. She may as well have done this to herself; she had set herself up as the villain, so how can she be mad that Josie treats her as such?

“Don’t look so sad. I’m the villain. I am supposed to be sad and defeated at the end.” Penelope leans over to snatch the bottle back, taking a swig before raising it in a mock toast, “To fulfilling my destiny!”

Caroline watches on, conflicted. On one hand, she really should just stay out of her daughter’s relationship drama unless actively invited by her daughter. And she  _ really _ shouldn’t be comforting her daughter’s ex. 

But on the other hand, she had heard some of the fight and had a feeling that Penelope was probably going to need someone to be with her a little more than Josie right now. Watching the witch tilt her head back and drain a significant amount of the whiskey, she can’t exactly disprove her theory. 

The blonde leans back on her hands and casts her eyes up at the night sky with a sigh. “Something I’ve learned over the years is that the real villains don’t acknowledge the fact that they are the villains.” 

She turns to face the watery green eyes gazing mournfully back at her. With a wry grin, she continued, “The ones who do usually have some secret reasoning that, when eventually discovered, makes them not so villainous.”

Caroline paused before snatching the bottle from a preoccupied Penelope and taking a swig with a teasing grin. “They also have a tendency towards whiskey and leather jackets.”

“I’m not wearing a leather jacket.”

She raises an unimpressed eyebrow at the weak defence. “Penelope. You’re drinking whiskey alone on the roof after an emotionally charged confrontation with the resident heroes.”

At Penelope’s blank look, Caroline waves the hand holding the bottle to indicate their surroundings. “This entire situation is a leather jacket.”

The witch rolls her eyes and looks pointedly at the bottle until Caroline makes a face and moves the bottle to her other side with a mutter, “You shouldn’t be drinking.”

Penelope shrugs as she reaches for the second bottle she had grabbed. “You shouldn’t be avoiding my question.” At Caroline’s curious look, her expression sobers, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m the headmistress.” 

“Seriously?”

Caroline giggles at the irritation plain on the witch’s face. The still smiling vampire brought her bottle to her lips as she turned to look over the grounds of the school. They sit in the silence for a minute before Caroline quietly breaks it. “They nearly died. I wasn’t here and I didn’t even know until it was over. They left Europe and I was looking at flights before they even took off.” 

Her admission is left to hang above them. Caroline sees the teen next to her fidget and clearly debate internally whether or not she should say anything. Relief shrouds her when the witch chooses against offering her own take on Caroline’s busy ‘work’ travel schedule.

Caroline lifts the bottle and drinks as she tries to shake off the heavy emotions associated with her constant absence. They can’t both be dwelling in their respective pain and regrets. 

She forces herself to perk up and shoots the witch a smile. “And with everything I keep hearing about all these monsters popping up, I figured it might be irresponsible to leave all of the students with only a human to protect them.”

“You’re forgetting the team of teenagers risking life and limb to save the day.” Penelope smirked.

Caroline laughs lightly before playing along. “Oh, of course! Now I feel  _ much _ better. The school’s protection lies in the hands of kids barely old enough to drive.” She shoots Penelope a pointed look as the witch takes another gulp from her bottle, “And definitely not old enough to drink.”

“This is sweet tea.”

Caroline shakes her head with a grin.

Silence fell over them once more. The blonde was in no hurry to bring up the minefield that was whatever was happening between Josie and Penelope but her ears twitched at distant sounds and she knew her time was running out.

Bracing herself with a long pull of her whiskey, she started, “So are we going to talk about why you’re up here alone, at night, drinking what may or may not be sweet tea?

“I wasn’t really planning on it.” Penelope avoids as she picks at the bottle label.

“Plans change.”

A light hum was all the response she got from the raven-haired witch. With a roll of her eyes, Caroline uses her vamp speed to steal the remaining bottle that Penelope was cradling.

“Hey!” Penelope jolts from her position to face the blonde with equal parts irritation and accusation. 

“Talk.”

The witch scoffs before biting out, “I broke your daughter’s heart and so she now hates me. That’s it.”

Ignoring both the attempt to deflect and avoid the conversation, as well as the anger flashing in green eyes, Caroline pushes on. “And where does the succubus come into it?”

“How did you know about that?”

“I’m a vampire and Josie wasn’t exactly quiet.” Penelope tenses and avoids her eyes at the reminder. Caroline softened at the sight, “I heard it as I was coming in.”

“So then you already know what happened.” The aggressive tone of her words isn’t matched by the witch’s actions. She stares at the roof tiles and her hands grip tightly at whatever is nearest them.

Caroline takes this all in before shifting closer and prompting gently, “What I know is that you are very obviously not over Josie.”

“I broke up with her.”

The insistent denial has the vampire smiling sadly and knowingly, “Doesn’t mean you don’t still love her.”

Penelope brushes away the tears clinging to her lashes. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Why not?”

“Because Josie hates me! She wants nothing to do with me!” Caroline doesn’t flinch at the explosive outburst, just watches quietly as the girl chokes on her emotions.

“You broke up with her.” The gentle statement served as both a reminder and an admonishment.

Penelope couldn’t meet the mother’s eyes and had to look away. “I had to.”

“Not wanted to?”

“What?” Confusion plain on her face, Penelope darted her eyes up.

“You said that you had to break up with her, not that you wanted to.”

A stubborn frown forms on the witch’s face. “Does it matter? It doesn’t change how things are now.”

The blonde shrugged and took a drink. “Maybe not but I think you might be wrong about Josie wanting nothing to do with you.”

“She told me that herself. In no uncertain terms.” Penelope dipped her head in acknowledgement with an empty smile.

“Yeah.” Caroline nodded before turning a skeptical eyebrow on the witch. “But didn’t you tell her,  _ in no uncertain terms _ , that you didn’t want to be with her anymore?”

Penelope concedes with a huff. “What’s your point?”

“My point is that sometimes we say things that we don’t really mean.” Caroline shoots her a meaningful look, “Or say things that don’t reflect how we really feel.”

“She regrets loving me.”Penelope says quietly. She keeps her eyes fixed on the bottle she’s toying with in her hands. “She told me. Just now. That’s why I’m up here.”

Penelope sucked her bottom lip between her teeth as a few tears trailed down her face. She looked around the empty roof with an anguished expression.

“This is where she told me she loved me the first time.”

“Penelope…” Caroline inhaled sharply. She didn’t know the significance of the location but now that she did, it was just that little bit more tragic.

Penelope turned a self-deprecating smile on the blonde. “That’s how I knew it was the succubus and not Josie. The succubus was too friendly, too  _ loving _ to be the real deal.” She swallowed thickly and returned her eyes to the distant tree line. “Josie hasn’t been like that near me for a while. As you no doubt heard.”

Caroline took a moment to consider everything that the witch said before pouting slightly. “I don’t understand.”

Penelope gives a hollow smile. “Which part?”

Caroline turns her body to face Penelope fully with a curious frown. “Why did you break up with Josie? You’re clearly no less in love with her than you ever were.”

The raven-haired witch met the blonde’s curiosity with a raised eyebrow, “Why do you constantly leave? You clearly hate being away from them and all of you are happier when you’re here.”

The vampire grits her teeth and tenses her jaw before gulping at the liquor left in her bottle. “It’s complicated.”

A knowing smirk crosses the witch’s face. “Hmm. So’s mine.”

“Well, you’ve got me there.” She concedes with a head nod and grin.

“I know I’m still madly and hopelessly in love with Josie. I also know it makes no sense to constantly be around her but it’s just hard.” At Caroline’s encouraging smile, Penelope gulps down her embarrassment and continues. “When I broke up with her, I knew it was going to be hard and I knew it was going to be painful but I just didn’t know how bad it really would be.”

Caroline smiles lightly, lost in her memories. “I know.”

“I need to let her go.” Penelope nods her head as she begins to talk herself into a course of action. “Josie’s right. I can’t keep intruding in her life just because I can’t move on.”

Caroline curses internally. This wasn’t how she had planned on this conversation going.

Before she could think of a way to interject and talk Penelope down, the witch continued. “I love Josie and that’s not going to change anytime soon. Which is why I’m going to stop bothering her. I have to let go and let her move on with her life.”

Caroline grimaced as her ears picked up the impending danger coming their way. 

“Penelope. Come on, think this through.”

“I have!” Penelope cried as she tossed her head back, “It feels like I can’t think about anything else.”

The vampire nervously darted her eyes towards the door as she heard the footsteps approaching. Much to her dismay, Penelope took another swig from her bottle. 

Caroline winced as the footsteps hit the door right as Penelope opened her mouth to continue.

“The right thing to do- the  _ only _ thing to do- is to let Josie go.” She turns pleading eyes on the blonde, “That’s what they say right? If you love someone,  _ really  _ love someone, you step back and let them go.” 

She gave a helpless shrug. “So I’ll just let Josie go.”

“What?” 

Caroline closed her eyes, praying that this was all just a dream. When she cracked an eye open to check, tragically it was all too real.

Josie was definitely still standing in the doorway looking distraught. And Penelope was still staring back open-mouthed in disbelief.

Caroline did the only thing any reasonable person could do in that situation.

She drained the rest of her bottle in one swift move.


	3. tell me that you like me but it's not enough

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT'S ABOUT THE YEARNING

"Josie.” Penelope breathes. She closes her eyes and shakes her head to try and clear her vision, sure that the brunette is just a figment of her wishful thinking combined with alcohol.

She cracks an eye open to find Josie was still there, glaring away.

The witch scrambles to her feet, clearing her throat and straightening her shoulders to project a confidence she was definitely not feeling, "What are you doing here?"

Caroline grimaces at the absence of the witch’s regular grace and composure as she follows the panicked witch to her feet. Her movement startles Josie who breaks from the stare she had been holding with a confused Penelope.

"Mum?" 

When she burst onto the roof and heard Penelope, Josie couldn’t focus on anything but the witch. Betrayal flashes across her face as she registers exactly who was keeping her ex company on the roof.

Josie looks between them with accusatory eyes. "What do you mean, ‘let me go?’ What is going on?" She demands sharply.

The blonde can’t help her bright smile at seeing her daughter again, even when said daughter was angry and glaring at her. 

She speeds over to snatch up Josie in a strong hug. "Hi sweetie, I missed you so much! I just got in.” She pulls back with a teasing grin as Josie’s frown falters, “Imagine my surprise when I find a student not only breaking curfew but also underage drinking while being out of bounds."

“That doesn’t explain what you were saying.”

Caroline tilts her head curiously with a too-wide smile, “Can’t a mother have a long sit-down chat with her daughter’s ex who was recently set alight by said daughter?”

“You can, but it’s pretty weird.” The brunette drawls suspiciously with a furrowed brow.

“Sweetie, in a few years my daughters are going to be physically older than I ever will be.” She points out with a placating smile, “Redefine the word weird. This isn’t that bad.”

She winds an arm around Josie’s shoulders and spins them both to face Penelope with a smirk. “And Penelope isn’t the worst company I’ve ever kept.”

“I’ll try not to get a big head.” Penelope deadpans with an eye roll. 

Josie bites her lip and darts deep eyes over to the witch. 

Slightly glazed green eyes flick up to meet her stare. Josie catches the twinkle of amusement and her lips twitch upwards in a small echoing smile. 

She always found Penelope to be happier and freer when they were on the roof. It was like her own secret version of the witch. A version that very few people had ever been allowed close enough to see.

That was why it was so hard when they broke up. Not only had Josie lost Penelope in general but this version of Penelope,  _ her  _ Penelope, had been replaced by someone cold and cruel. 

Even with the utter mess of hurt, hate and cruelty that now lay between them, Josie still can’t resist the relief that bloomed when she catches even just a glimpse of  _ her  _ Penelope once more.

That small balloon of joy bursts when Penelope’s eyes catch the small smile on her lips and her face falls as those green eyes shift away. 

Josie barely stifles the resulting whine that builds in her throat at the loss. 

She hadn’t realised how much she had truly missed seeing Penelope comfortably happy and now that she had, she didn’t want to lose it again. 

Josie slightly jerks forward until the forgotten weight of her mother’s arm around her shoulders reminds her of the situation. She stills and ignores the inquisitive looks from her mother, keeping her own eyes focused on Penelope.

The raven-haired witch coughs lightly and shyly avoids her gaze. Josie watches as she shifts her weight uncomfortably, casting those green eyes around the roof in search of something.

“I’ll um… I’ll just give the two of you some space.” Penelope gives a painfully awkward smile before inching away to the edge of the roof and busying herself with anything she could find. 

Caroline looks between the two younger girls with a despairing grimace. Josie has yet to shift her intense moon eyes from the other witch since she first locked in on her and was doing absolutely nothing to disguise the clear yearning present on her face. 

And as for Penelope, she had moved to face away from the two of them but had angled her head to keep Josie in her field of vision. 

The vampire rolls her eyes. Neither of them were looking like they were going to be the first to make a move. 

Which meant that it was going to be up to Caroline to nudge them forward.

She bumps her shoulder against Josie’s lightly, "I heard about the succubus." Panic blooms over the siphoner’s face. Caroline softens her voice and leant in. "And the fight."

Josie ducks her head shamefully and can't help but sheepishly glance at Penelope. 

Caroline is mollified at the regret she can clearly see and feel radiating from the brunette. She lightly cups Josie’s cheek and smiles gently when the brunette reluctantly faces her. “You can fix it.”

Josie looks up at the vampire from under her lashes. “You think so?”

Caroline tucks some loose hair behind her ear and smiles when Josie leans into her palm slightly. “Sweetheart, I know so. You can fix it.”

Josie ducks her head and grins up at Caroline. "I'm really happy to see you."

"Not as happy as I am to see you." 

The moment is broken as she flinches at the sounds echoing through the school, growing in both volume and proximity. Caroline casts a worried look towards the door. "But I should probably go."

Penelope spins quickly and opens her mouth to join Josie, who was already protesting. 

Caroline barely suppresses an eye roll. Of course they would be on the same page while refusing to even lock eyes.

Caroline silences their protests with a raised hand. "I need to go stop Lizzie from waking half the school looking for Penelope." 

She nudges Josie forward towards the witch and pins them both with a pointed look. "And I think the two of you could do with a private talk."

“Mum!”

Caroline feels a grin stretch across her face as the blush rises on her daughter’s cheeks. Penelope’s choked gasp wrenches a laugh from her throat that has a red-faced Josie glaring at her even harder. 

Cutting her losses, Caroline speeds from the roof laughing before either of the witches can move to stop her.

Penelope and Josie are both left gaping at the door swinging in the wake of the blonde vampire. Hesitantly, they exchange an uncomfortable look as a tense, awkward silence settles around them.

Josie wracks her brain for the perfect sentence to say that would make everything better. One sentence that would absolve the both of them of everything, that would wipe the slate clean and let them start again.

She comes up empty.

Her heart throbs when Penelope flicks those eyes her way. The brunette catches the pain flash across her face before the witch turns her head away.

When Penelope faces the siphoner again, there is no sign of the previous vulnerability. Her face is the same mask that Josie has grown so familiar with over the last year. When Penelope looks at her though, Josie can see how shaky the witch's disaffected mask really is.

She's torn from her observations by Penelope flipping her hair and scoffing at her as she clears the roof of the bottles with a flick of the wrist.

"Don't worry. I'm leaving."

She begins to walk away from and Josie can feel the one chance to fix whatever they are slipping away from her.

"No, don't!"

Josie reaches out a hand to grab Penelope before she can get too far away from her but thinks better of it halfway through the motion and lets it fall uselessly back to her side. 

Penelope is giving her an impatient, expecting look and Josie swallows thickly as she musters her courage. Her voice feels small and shaky but she pleads anyway, "I need to talk to you."

Penelope stiffens and her lip curls into a defensive snarl. "I think we've talked enough for one night, Josie. You've made your opinion abundantly clear, I don't really need another reminder."

She moves to leave and steadfastly ignores Josie’s calls of her name. 

Right as Penelope reaches the exit door, the entire doorway glows an alarming red. The witch whips around with a snarl already formed on her face.

“ _ Seriously? _ You’re going to seal the fucking door?”

"I'm sorry, okay! I'm sorry." 

Penelope shakes her head and shifts back to the door and begins the counter spell. 

Desperation coursing wildly through her veins, Josie rushes forward and pleads lowly. "Please just… just stay for a minute okay?"

"Why, Jo!" Penelope bursts out. 

She abandons her spell and furiously advances on the suddenly uncertain siphoner. She gestures sharply at the space between them, "Why do I always have to be the one crawling back?!"

"Because you're the one who left!" 

Josie’s plan to be calm and reasonable falls to the wayside as righteous rage burns through her. Her outburst stopped Penelope moving forward but the witch’s body language screams her defiant challenge.

It’s now Josie’s turn to move forward, jabbing an accusing finger at the witch. " _ You _ told me you loved me and then you just changed your mind and _ left _ ." She tilts her head mockingly. "So tell me, _ Penelope _ ; am I supposed to just thank you for that?"

Penelope’s shoulders slump as Josie rehashes their break up. It wasn’t the words so much as the memories of the shared pain that the words carried with them that really struck Penelope down. Unable to face the raw feeling radiating off the brunette, she turns her head to the side to avoid her eyes.

"Josie…"

Josie leans her head back and stares at the emerging stars, breathing deeply as she fights to wrangle her anger back under her control with some difficulty. Looking at her ex didn’t help, the sight of Penelope had never failed to stir strong emotions from her. 

Wearily, she lets out a shuddering exhale and rubs a hand over her face. "This wasn't how I planned for this to go."

“You mean you weren't planning on yelling at me?” Penelope scoffs and pins the siphoner with a sarcastic look, “Doesn't seem like you."

Josie groans and pinches at the bridge of her nose. "God, shut up. How are you so infuriating even when I'm trying to apologise?"

"This is supposed to be an apology?"

Josie grits her teeth, brown eyes sparking with annoyance as she glares balefully, "Well, it would be if you would just stop being such an asshole."

"Cause it's always my fault, right?  _ I’m _ the bad guy here." Penelope spits, her jaw muscles jumping as she clenches her teeth in frustration.

Josie swallows down her own anger and feelings of guilt and accepts Penelope's anger with her head held high. She wasn’t about to let Penelope see just how easily the witch can still get under her skin. During every interaction over the past year, Josie has been unable to back down from Penelope without feeling like she had lost some battle. 

Even now, through her feelings of guilt and regret, that last hold out of her own hurt and pride refuses to let her back down from the other girl.

The witch gives her a hard stare and Josie can do nothing but return the gaze mutely. With a shake of her head, Penelope scoffs derisively and turns her back on Josie to walk away.

Watching Penelope walk away yet again was enough for Josie to push past her own hurt. The raven-haired witch had almost reached the door when Josie calls out to her.

"You're not."

The witch freezes. Josie notices her hands clench and her head tilt just slightly towards her but she still doesn't turn back to face her. 

Bolstered by the reaction, she inches forward and continues, "The bad guy. You're not. I shouldn't have said any of that to you earlier." 

She watches Penelope slowly turn and eye her warily. 

The guardedness of her eyes forces Josie to avert her eyes, guilt twisting her insides. Biting the inside of her cheek anxiously, Josie forces her eyes back on the witch, her voice softening with shame, "That was cruel."

Penelope doesn’t react for a second. Josie sees the break in her eyes just before the witch looks away and stiffly crosses her arms.

"Didn't stop you from saying it."

"I was taking all my anger out on you.” 

Penelope snorts and fixes Josie with an obvious look. “Yeah, no shit.”

Josie nods slightly as she moves towards her angry ex. She wasn’t sure what else she was expecting, Penelope wasn’t exactly known for her forgiving nature. And if she was drinking on the roof in this particular spot, presumably alone until Caroline stumbled across her, Josie knew that her earlier words had cut deep. 

Penelope watches warily as she approaches but doesn’t move away or make a move to stop her. The lack of outright rejection gave Josie hope.

“I guess I just got so used to blaming everything negative on you so I could lie to myself.” She confesses quietly.

“What?”

Josie looks away uncomfortably. Despite what the majority of the school thought, Josie hated sharing or opening up about her emotions. She was much more comfortable hiding them away in her mind, but she felt like she owed Penelope the honesty. Even if it wouldn’t fix what had broken between them.

“If things go bad and it’s your fault, then I can pretend that what we had had- what we were- wasn’t everything that it was.”

At the siphoner’s words, the fight drained out of the witch in a heaving rasp. Her shoulders slumped and her arms fell to hang at her sides. Josie bit back a sob at the wounded green eyes burning into her as the witch forces out a raw whisper, “Jo-”

“I had to tarnish the memory of what we had or otherwise I would have gone mad. The guilt and regret of knowing that I had ruined something so wonderful and… perfect.” She breathes out into a watery smile at the last word.

Her voice trembles and breaks but Josie can’t stop the words once they start. Her tongue darts out to wet dry lips and she feels a lone tear roll down her cheek. 

“Something that made me so very happy,” She sucks her lip into her mouth and looks at Penelope, devastation plain across her face, “That much regret would have buried me.”

Emotions clogging her throat as she fights to keep her own tears at bay, Penelope shrugs helplessly, "What do you want me to say Josie?"

"I don't know." Josie whispers, voice raw and shaky. "I just know that I hate this.”

At the witch’s avoidant silence, Josie presses forward, “Don’t you?”

“Compared to what, Josie?” 

Exasperated and drained, Penelope lets her long standing frustrated hurt seep into her words. “Compared to you constantly ditching me and running off because  _ Lizzie _ fucking whistled?”

“Penelope-”

“No.” She shakes her head vigorously, “No, you made your choice.”

She pins Josie with a dark stare and lets her hurt shine through her eyes. “And we both know that you were never going to choose me.”

“That’s not fair.”

Penelope’s jaw drops and her eyebrows shoot up in disbelief. “Fair?! You want to talk about fair?”

Josie gives her an angry look. “How was I supposed to abandon Lizzie for someone who had just abandoned me?”

“Abandoned you?” Penelope yells before forcing herself to calm with a hissing breath. She continues in a quieter but just as fierce tone, “Josie, I gave you  _ every _ chance! I begged for you to stay, to choose us over Lizzie, but everytime you left.” 

“She’s my sister!”

“And what was I supposed to be?”

Josie stops at the furious question and gives Penelope a beseeching look, surely the witch had to know how much she had meant to her?

“You were the girl I was madly in love with.” 

Even as she said it, something rang untrue about it and she knew that it was the past tense. If there wasn’t still some aspect of her in love with the witch then none of this would be as hard as it was. 

Unable to hold Penelope’s eyes, Josie locks her eyes on the stone beneath them and swallows past the lump that had formed in her throat over her confession. 

“Jojo…”

“I couldn’t fight Lizzie, Pen. I just couldn’t. Not after everything that happened. So, I lost you.” 

Josie looks back at Penelope with a small, mournful smile. “And what was I going to fight her for then? I had already lost you, what else did I have to fight for?”

Penelope tilts her head back to stem the tears forming. Josie’s lips tremble as the raven-haired witch shakes her head and rasps a humourless laugh. When she looks back at Josie, there are tears clinging to her lashes.

“You would have had me, Jojo.”

Josie gives a watery chuckle and brushes the tears forming under her eyes. “Now you tell me.” 

They lapse into silence as the long-standing tension between them settles into something softer. Emotionally exhausted, Penelope’s head droops and the edge that she had been projecting around her ex fades. Josie lets her own defences fall and the two share a shaky smile.

Josie feels her heart throb. Having Penelope’s smile directed at her again feels like coming home. Her shoulders sag when she remembers why smiling at Penelope was so rare.

“Pen, I’m so sorry.”

The corner of Penelope’s mouth lifts into a melancholy grin. “Yeah, me too.”

The hope that had bloomed in Josie’s chest earlier comes roaring back. Penelope had never apologised to her since the break up, too much raw hurt and anger between them for either to even consider dropping their guard to have a genuine conversation about it. But this roof was special. 

Josie was counting on that intangible magic of the roof to work in her favour one more time. Her face brightens as she steps in closer to Penelope with an encouraging look. 

“So can’t we change it?” She pleads hopefully.

“I think we might be a little too late for that Jojo.”

Josie can’t help her exasperated huff. Despite both of them denying it for past months, she knew Penelope. There was a time when she knew the witch better than anyone else, better than Josie knew herself. 

And that knowledge leant itself to the siphoner now. 

The rejection would usually leave her crippled by her insecurity and self-doubt but she had one very large hint towards the witch’s feelings.

"I spoke to the succubus you know." 

The siphoner stifles a smug grin at the panic flashing across the witch’s face. 

"Or at least I'm pretty sure I did. For all I know, I could have been talking to a mirror,” Josie cocks her head and raises a smug eyebrow, “You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

Josie feels a cocky grin stretch across her face as Penelope shifts back a step. It was rare to have the witch on the back foot and Josie was going to enjoy it while it lasted.

"I thought I was just being messed with but turns out,  _ you _ trapped her like that." Penelope winces slightly. 

Sensing victory, Josie steps in closer. 

They were close enough that she could see the flecks of gold in Penelope’s eyes, close enough that all she had to do was move her arm and then they would finally be touching.

Josie leans her head in and watches Penelope’s eyes darken where they watch her from under her lids. 

She pauses just close enough to feel the electricity hum in the space between them. Her lips pull into a smirk when green eyes can’t stop flickering between her eyes and her lips. 

“Still think it’s too late?”

Clearly affected by the siphoner’s proximity, Penelope closes her eyes as she tries to change the subject.

“You saw the succubus?” 

Josie’s grin widens into a smile at the gravelly tone. Penelope clears her throat and tries again with a forced conversational tone, “How’d that go?”

Josie hesitates and considers pushing her clear advantage as Penelope’s eyes flick between her own eyes and her lips. It was the desperate plea on Penelope’s face that set Josie’s mind. 

With a rough sigh, she steps back from the witch and tries to ignore how she suddenly felt colder out of the other girls' proximity. 

Penelope was apparently determined to ignore the conversation around how affected they still were by the other and Josie was apparently foolish enough to let her.

“The succubus chat could have been better.” She says shortly.

The witch gives her a curious look and Josie relents huffily, “She was a jerk and I was maybe not in the brightest of moods.”

Penelope laughs. “I would never have guessed.”

A smile jumps to the brunette’s lips unbidden and she waves a hand around them, indicating the roof. “Which brings me back to the secondary purpose of finding you up here.”

“Oh?” Penelope plays along with a mocking thoughtful frown, “Does it have anything to do with why your mother is currently stopping your sister from looking for me?”

“Maybe a little?” Josie tries. At the witch’s unimpressed look she pouts, “We need your help. The succubus is refusing to talk to anyone but you.”

Penelope rolls her eyes upward and sighs exaggeratedly. She peeks a glance at Josie’s pleading face and groans. 

“Fine,” She stabs a finger at the siphoner, “But I am bringing the bourbon with me.” 

Josie agrees with a smile that quickly falls to a grimace when she looks to the roof edge.

“Um, I think Mum may have taken it.”

Penelope’s head snaps to stare at the now empty spot where the bourbon once was. Josie valiantly holds in her laughter at the dumbfounded look on her face. 

Regardless of her efforts to stifle her laughter, Penelope knew Josie just as well as the siphoner knew her. She marches by the brunette with a hand held up to stop Josie outright laughing.

“Not a damn sound, Saltzman.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Park.”

-

They had made their way through the halls of the Salvatore School with superficial polite conversations and peaceful silences but the closer that they got to the basement, the harder Josie found it to hold back the questions burning at the back of her throat.

They’re in the same hall as the basement entrance and Josie still hasn’t asked her. She twists her mouth in anxious thought before she huffs.

“Can I ask you something?” 

Eyeing the nervous brunette, Penelope laughs lightly. “Would saying no stop you?”

“Yes.”

Penelope faces Josie, scepticism written plainly across her features. Josie pouts in response but concedes with an irritated huff when the witch raises her eyebrows as well. 

Penelope laughs at the pout on her face and a smile stretches across Josie’s face reflexively as she watches. She catches herself and quickly looks to the wall before Penelope can turn her head and see the yearning on her face. 

“Nevermind.” Josie mutters and strides past Penelope, using her longer legs to make the witch work harder just to keep up with her.

They’re steps away from the door when Penelope grasps her elbow and tugs gently to have the siphoner spin to face her.

“Josie.” Enchanting green eyes stare at her expectantly and Josie is so enthralled that she almost doesn’t hear Penelope continue, “Just ask me.”

Josie gazes into those eyes as she tries to decide whether she really wants to ask and potentially shatter the fragile peace that they had found. Penelope waits for her patiently and Josie can’t help the small smile at the familiarity of it. 

Still, the brunette says nothing and the silence begins to stretch uncomfortably. Green eyes plead with Josie to just  _ ask _ but she can’t find the courage to form the words. 

Penelope deflates with a disappointed sigh. With a slight shake of her head, she spins on her heel and goes for the door. 

Josie shoots an arm out to stop the witch. Penelope closes her eyes with a sigh as she lets herself be moved.

“Jos-”

Josie interrupts swiftly, “Why were you so sad before?”

“What?” Penelope frowns, confused.

“On the roof, just before Mum left.” 

She wraps her arms around her middle as understanding dawns in Penelope’s eyes. Avoiding the witch’s eyes, Josie continues in a small voice, “You looked at me and suddenly you were sad.”

She glances in Penelope’s direction but can’t bring herself to properly meet her eyes, “Why?”

Penelope lets the question hang in the air. Josie watches her think it over and consider whether or not she should answer. 

She rolls her teeth over her lip and glances up to give Josie a searching look. Josie stands taller and squares her shoulders as she tries to project strength and reassurance in the hopes of getting an answer out of the closed off witch.

Insecurity and guilt heavy on her features, Penelope faces away from Josie as she quietly answers.

“You were smiling at me.”

The brunette’s shoulders collapse inward and she shuffles her feet as her own insecurities claw their way out of her throat.

“And that made you sad?”

Penelope says nothing and Josie can’t find it in herself to fight the silence between them. 

She resigns herself to the lack of answers and moves to follow the witch as Penelope opens the basement door and moves into the shadows beyond.

She startles when Penelope freezes half in the doorway and looks back at her. The flickering lights in the hall cast Penelope’s face half into darkness. 

Josie feels her breath catch and her heart race and she finds herself heavily distracted as her eyes roam over Penelope’s face. She burns the image into her mind; Penelope, half cloaked in shadows but eyes still burning brightly in the light, gazing back at her.

Distracted as she was, the brunette almost misses Penelope’s quiet and grief-stricken words. 

“It was the first time you had been happy to see me since we broke up.”

She disappears down the steps and into the shadows before Josie can fully process anything she had said.

The siphoner is left standing alone, aching for the girl who had once more disappeared from right in front of her.

-

Penelope waits to the side of the stairs with an amused smirk as Josie comes racing down them. 

The brunette casts a panicked look around the room that quickly lapses into a relieved smile when she catches sight of Penelope.

Penelope feels an ache in her chest and can feel her aura soften solely for the siphoner.

Their peace is broken by the satisfied drawl from the cage, “Oh good, you brought her. I was just about to impale myself on one of these bars.”

Josie tears herself from smiling at Penelope to shoot a glare at the version of her behind the cage bars.

She turns her glare on a guilty looking Hope and an unrepentant Lizzie, “What are you doing?”

“Torturing the both of us.” 

Hope’s voice is muffled from where she has her head buried in her arms.

Lizzie rolls her eyes with an offended look. “Shut up, I am not.” 

“Where is Mum?”

“She found me earlier and put us both on succubitch guard duty before going off to keep Dad distracted.” Lizzie shoots her twin a dirty look, “Thanks for telling me that Mum was here by the way.”

Josie rolls her eyes. “I only found out a minute before you, Lizzie.”

“Whatever,” The blonde puffs out her chest and tosses a proud smirk at the two newcomers, “I am explaining the theme and my vision for our birthday party.”

Josie flinches. It goes largely unnoticed except by Penelope who scowls and snaps her head to the blonde twin.

“You don’t mean your last birthday party.” Penelope growls. Hope glances up at the raven haired witch and winces at her darkening expression. 

Lizzie nods obliviously, “Of course I do. I planned that party to perfection. Except for that little Rafael snafu.”

Penelope feels a snarl build in her throat but it’s stopped short by Josie. The brunette cuts in front of her and gives her a pleading look as she lightly trails her fingertips down the witch’s arm.

Penelope stares at the goosebumps that rise in the wake of Josie’s hands. Her jaw clenches and she pulls away with a scoff. 

Of course nothing would have changed since the roof. Josie would still put Lizzie above everything,  _ everyone, _ even herself.

She doesn’t see it but she can feel Josie’s face fall as she turns away.

“Penelope....” 

She can hear the blatant plea in Josie's voice and works her jaw while she stubbornly resists looking back at the siphoner. All it would take is one look at her pleading face and Penelope would cave yet again. 

In her peripherals, she can see Josie tentatively stepping closer and reaching out. Then there's a hand gently running down her arm and unclenching her fist. Penelope works her jaw and pointedly stares at the opposite wall.

"Hey," Josie ducks her head directly into Penelope’s line of sight. Penelope sets her jaw and moves her head to the side but Josie just moves with her. Josie squeezes her captured hand with both of hers. “Hey, look at me.”

Penelope stubbornly refuses but feels Josie's thumb slowly rub across the back of her hand. The witch reluctantly meets Josie's eyes and her breath catches. "Josie-"

“Oh my god,” Lizzie throws her head back and groans loudly. 

The interruption startles the two and Josie drops Penelope’s hand as she jumps back. Penelope catches the guilty expression on the brunette’s face and tenses. 

She stubbornly ignores how cold and empty her hand feels as she schools her face into the unfeeling mask that she normally wears around everyone who isn’t Josie. 

She isn’t quite sure what she expected. 

Maybe for it to take more than one sentence from Lizzie to make Josie to shy away from whatever was happening between them. Penelope crosses her arms over her chest and keeps her head high as she ignores Josie’s guilty eyes silently pleading from the side.

In her decision to not look at Josie, Penelope forgot that she didn’t have many other options in the cells. She chose to focus on the tribrid who was busy casting wary eyes between Penelope and Josie.

Hope flushes slightly when Penelope catches her next look but doesn’t avert her studying gaze. Penelope raises an eyebrow at the brazenness and the redhead’s grin turns to something that could easily be classified as wolfish before she turns to Lizzie, “What are you talking about now?”

Exasperation and annoyance warring for room on her face, Lizzie shoots the curious redhead a glance. 

"They do this all the time. It's  _ exhausting _ ."

Penelope takes an aggressive step towards the blonde with her top lip curled into a snarl. "You would know all about being exhausting, wouldn't you Saltzman?"

Lizzie matches the step with a scowl of her own. Hope and Josie quickly step in front of the volatile witches with outstretched hands. 

"Well,” Hope drags the word out with a look tossed over her shoulder to Josie and Penelope. "I think the two of you should be able to handle this.” 

The redhead firmly grabs the blonde’s shoulders and walks her to the stairs. Lizzie’s lip curls into a snarl but doesn’t otherwise protest the movement. 

Hope makes sure that the siphoner turns to leave before gesturing back at the remaining two with a knowing smile. "We'll just leave the both of you to it."

The tense silence stretches until the slam of the door echoes through the basement. Penelope catches the small twitch of Josie’s fingers and side steps out of the brunette’s range before her anger could fall victim to Josie’s soothing touch.

A shuffling noise draws the raven-haired witch’s attention to the occupied cell. A small smile forms as the witch strides away from the real Josie to focus on the fake Josie that she can easily redirect her anger at.

"You're awfully quiet.” She goads. The succubus says nothing but lifts a shoulder in a casual shrug. 

Penelope pushes harder, “Don't suppose you've reflected on your actions and decided that you'll be moving on from the whole Malivore plot?"

The succubus gives her a pitying smile. "They certainly don't like you." 

She tilts her head and scans Josie before turning her attention back to Penelope, "And she  _ clearly _ cares about what they think, so where does that leave you?” 

Penelope’s fists clench as the succubus lazily reclines and shoots her a sly smile.

“Nowhere near her, I would imagine."

Penelope's face twitches as she fights to contain herself. She hears Josie’s harsh intake of breath and doesn’t need to look to know that right now, the siphoner’s brow would be furrowed. 

"That's not true." 

Sharp steps come closer and Penelope can hear the undertone of guilt in her angry denial.

The succubus laughs lightly as she rests her head against the bars and focuses on Penelope. The witch reminds herself that it isn’t the real Josie as her heart begins to beat a little faster having those eyes focused only on her.

"How quickly did you come running when she called for you?" The succubus asks, her innocent tone betrayed by the sly look in her eyes.

Josie scowls. "What?" 

The succubus carries on as if the siphoner had never spoken. She pins Penelope with a saccharine smile, "Couldn’t have been long. Blondie hadn’t even gotten to the catering options yet.” 

As the truth in her words sinks in, Penelope shifts her weight and crosses her arms as if that would protect her from the succubus’ knowing gaze. “What’s your point?”

She looks away with a laugh, “My point is that she changed her tune on you pretty quick.” The succubus turns back to Penelope with a mockingly sweet smile, “And right after I said I would talk to you only. Coincidence, I’m sure.”

The witch feels her insides squirm at the implication of the succubus’ words. She risks a quick glance to Josie as she considers the possibility presented to her. 

Josie catches her glance and immediately spins to the other witch fiercely shaking her head, “You know that’s not true.” She argues with a desperation creeping into her tone, “It’s all just a part of some stupid little mind game.”

The succubus keeps her eyes locked on Penelope’s with a beaming smile. “Hey, how long do you think it would have taken her to even  _ acknowledge _ you if I hadn’t made it a condition of my cooperation?”

Penelope can’t look away from the cruel and twisted version of Josie in front of her. Logically, she knows that the real Josie is right, this is all just part of a mind game and the succubus would want revenge for earlier.

But, still.

Everything that is being thrown at her carries elements of her biggest fears and insecurities when it comes to her relationship with Josie.

“Hey, how long do you think it would take for me to turn you to ash?” Josie snaps back and flames leap to life and dance in her palm threateningly.

The succubus ignores her display in favour of honing in on the weak link of Penelope's armour. The smile falls from her face and her face darkens as she digs her claws into Penelope’s exposed underbelly.

“She’s all you’ve got.” 

The witch distantly hears Josie saying something but all she can focus on is the cruel, caged visage in front of her, “And the  _ only _ reason she wants you now is to get rid of me.”

A storm of pain and insecurity rages in her chest but Penelope refuses to show the succubus how big a hit she has just scored. The only outward indicator of her turmoil in the clench of her fists and the tense cut of her shoulders.

Josie feels the same storm but, uncharacteristically, does nothing to contain it. 

“ _ Ignalusa!” _

With a scream, Josie snaps and hurls a fireball at the cage. The flames hit the cell bars and leave them glowing a dim red from the heat. The succubus leaps back from the bars with a wild cackle.

Penelope stares open-mouthed at the destruction in front of her. She’s torn from her gaping when Josie moves forward with another spell forming on her lips. 

The witch lunges forward and grabs hold of the siphoner’s arms to stop her advance. She holds tighter as the brunette struggles with a growl.

Turns the siphoner so that they're facing, even though Josie keeps her head turned and eyes glaring at the succubus.

“Josie. Hey, hey, come on.” Penelope turns Josie so they’re facing. She chuckles shortly as Josie still keeps her head turned so that she can glare at the succubus. 

The siphoner huffs at her chuckle and turns her head to face the witch, scowl firmly in place.

“Breathe,” Penelope rubs her hands soothingly up and down the brunette's arms. “Calm down, she’s only trying to rile you up.”

“It’s working.” The brunette mutters angrily.

Penelope scrunches her face. “I think the fireball let everyone know that.”

Josie ducks her head and breathes out a laugh. She looks up with a rueful smile and despite all of the doubt and uncertainty swirling in her mind, Penelope can’t help but return the smile.

The sarcastic drawl coming from the cell bursts their moment. 

“Better keep an eye on that temper.” 

They face the succubus wearing identical scowls causing the succubus to laugh before she continues with a mocking grin, “Someone could get hurt.”

Penelope gently releases her hold on Josie to take a step forward and angle herself so that Josie was behind her. She gives the succubus a cruel smirk, “Fingers crossed that it’s you.”

The succubus hisses in a breath through her teeth, “Ooh, such anger.” She stands and twirls with a grin, “And here I thought you’d like this form.”

Penelope her cheek hard enough that she tastes blood. Rolling her eyes at the witch’s refusal to play, the succubus sighs. 

“Or, maybe there’s some repressed bitterness and resentment.” 

She turns a darkly entertained smirk on the fuming brunette, “Any ideas on that one,  _ Jojo _ ?”

Penelope inhales sharply. She hears the quiet and gasp from next to her and closes her eyes in regret before turning to the brunette. “Josie... “

Josie shakes her head to stop her. She takes a few shaky breaths and her inner turmoil is written clearly across her face. Penelope barely holds back the flinch when Josie finally meets her eyes. She feels the dull ache in her chest worsen and the distraught expression on Josie’s face. 

The doubt creeping into her eyes hurts more than Penelope thought it would. 

She had thought that she was hardened to the siphoner questioning her feelings by now but apparently not. It’s not overly surprising, she did break both of their hearts when she broke up with her and then spent the next year clamouring for any sort of attention from the brunette.

Before she can do anything to reassure Josie and calm the insecurities that would be screaming in the siphoner’s head, Penelope is interrupted.

“Oops.” 

Penelope’s furious glare did nothing to deter the mocking succubus. She smiles widely at the chaos she had sewn and watched Josie closely as the brunette struggled to keep herself in check. She cocks her head with a satisfied grin. “Did I hit a nerve?”

It had seemed like a good idea at the time but Penelope was starting to see her mistake in locking the succubus into this form. It was so confusing to look at a near exact copy of the girl she loved and feel such deep burning rage. 

“I’m getting awfully close to hitting you.”

The succubus rolls her eyes at the witch and flops back on the bed with an exaggerated yawn. “The threats are getting stale. Can’t either of you think of something better to do?”

Penelope steps closer to the cell with a snarl but she’s pulled to stop by Josie who grabs her hand. She feels the siphoner tug her backwards and resists minutely before giving into the increasingly harder tugs. She looks over as the brunette steps beside her, face set into a mask that shows no hint of her emotions.

Slowly, the corner of Penelope’s mouth creeps up. Josie pulling her back hadn’t been out of fear for Penelope but rather, had been because the siphoner wanted to take point on questioning the succubus. Penelope squeezes Josie’s hand once before letting go and stepping back to give Josie room to work.

The brunette looks down her nose at the vision of herself reclining on the bed. 

Penelope grins. Confident, take-charge Josie was definitely doing it for her. The brunette scans the succubus dismissively, “If you’re bored, why don’t you just tell us what we want to know.”

The succubus considers this for a moment before raising a finger, “Better idea.” She rises and struts to the cell bars. “Why don’t one of you just give me the urn and I can get out of here, hmm?”

Penelope is more than happy to take the back seat and let Josie lead the questioning. For one, Josie playing tough cop is unexpected but totally enjoyable and Penelope is loving it. Secondly, it meant that Penelope didn’t have to question the succubus herself. 

Her last go at playing interrogator did nothing but raise her blood pressure and stir her insecurities. Josie taking the lead on dealing with the succubus was preferable really. 

“What does Malivore want with the urn?”

“Don’t know, don’t care.”

Penelope scoffs and Josie gives their captive a sceptical look. “Tell us the truth.”

“I am. I don’t know exactly what Malivore wants and I don’t care either way.”

Penelope and Josie share a confused look at the frankness of the succubus. Josie inches closer to Penelope and lowers her voice, “I don’t think she’s lying.”

Penelope nods slowly, eyes searching the succubus as if the truth was visible on her skin. The succubus barked a bitter laugh.

“I was locked away, trapped in a never-ending darkness. For  _ decades _ .” The succubus stares through them, trapped in memories of her own torment. 

A seemingly involuntary sneer twists across the fake Josie’s face until it turns into something dark and furious. 

Penelope fights the sudden urge to take a step away from the rage emanating from the figure in the cell. She darts wide eyes to Josie who seems to be facing the same problem. The tension in the air thrums with a magical charge and Penelope finds herself subconsciously shifting her feet into more of a fighting stance. 

Even trapped in a cell and locked into one form, the succubus sends off vibes that set both Penelope and Josie on edge. 

Eyes full of boiling fury snap to them and the succubus’ sudden smile is much closer to a baring of teeth than an actual smile, “One day, I get spat out in your stupid woods and all I know is that if I get him what he wants, I never have to go back. I finally get  _ peace _ ."

Josie stares at the succubus before righteous anger overtakes her face. 

She keeps her disbelieving eyes locked on the succubus and questions lowly, "And all of the people that will die never knowing peace if Malivore is released?"

Face carefully blank but eyes still burning, the succubus gives a noncommittal shrug, "Not my problem."

"Malivore rising would destroy everything and you don't think it's your problem?" Penelope can’t help but interject.

The succubus lets out a bark of humourless laughter. She wraps her hands around the cell bars and savours the feel of cool steel before looking between Penelope and Josie.

"And what's the alternative? I go back to that hellscape to continue being tortured for eternity? But hey, at least then I can be warmed by the knowledge that I ‘did the right thing’."

Before either of them could get a chance to reply, the succubus focuses solely on Penelope with a fierce sneer.

"You thought you did the right thing, how much comfort did that bring you?" 

At the raven-haired witch’s silence, she presses harder.

“When you were alone with nothing but your regrets and your own thoughts torturing you, were you comforted?”

Josie looks between the two of them warily before turning to face Penelope. Penelope feels the beginnings of panic creep into her veins and keeps her eyes fastened on the glaring succubus. She foolishly hopes that if she just doesn’t answer, Josie will let it drop.

She should have known better.

“What is she talking about?”

Josie’s insistence had Penelope silently cursing the succubus, there was no way that Josie would let it drop.

She throws the frowning brunette a quick glance and shakes her head minutely, trying to think of something to say that wouldn’t lead everything straight to hell.

“Don’t tell me your sweetie didn’t tell you?”

Penelope spares the succubus a short glare before focusing her attention back on Josie. 

The siphoner’s doubts have crept back into her eyes and Penelope can see the fidgeting of her hands at her sides. A sure sign that Josie wants to wrap her arms around herself for comfort.

“Penelope?” Her voice wavers and Penelope wants nothing more than to eliminate the doubt from her tone but now is not the time.

“Can we do this later?” Penelope nearly begs.

“This seems like a conversation best had in private.” The succubus raises her hands in retreat at the twin thunderous glares directed her way. 

Penelope can’t look away from Josie who looks less steady the more Penelope avoids her questions and the harder the succubus digs.

“Tell you what, you go fetch me that urn, I’ll be on my merry way and the two of you can have it out.”

Penelope throws her hands up and spins on her heel to face the cell. Her control shatters at the amused edge to the succubus’ smile, “You’re not getting the fucking urn! You may as well just resign yourself to that never-ending darkness now.”

“And you think you’ll get her with all those pesky little secrets you’re keeping?” She snarls back, “ _ You _ may as well just resign yourself to that never-ending loneliness now.”

“Enough.”

Josie’s quiet order stops the witch from retorting to the succubus and most likely kicking off into a brawl. As it is, Penelope turns to Josie only to see her face carefully blank and her eyes guarded heavily.

“Josie.” The witch pleads but is cut off with a raised hand from the siphoner who barely looks at her.

Penelope can almost feel their progress from the roof fall apart as the walls build themselves back up between them. Josie moves closer to the cell and, coincidentally, further from Penelope.

“Being at peace is all you want?” At the cautious agreement from the cell, Josie nods to herself, “I can give you that.”

The succubus laughs loudly with a condescending smile, “How? Are you going to go to Malivore and ask him nicely to let me go?”

“I’ll drain you.” The succubus’s face snaps into seriousness as she gives Josie her full attention, “You know I’m a siphoner.” 

“And if you siphon from me...” Penelope’s breath quickens as the succubus trails off. The witch knows what siphoning all of that magic will do to Josie.

Josie clenches her jaw and the lack of emotion in her voice has Penelope concerned, “If I siphon all of the magic out of you, you’ll get your peace.”

One side of the succubus’ mouth lifted into a smirk, “You’re going to kill me?”

Josie stares back, determination etched into her face, “I’m going to give you your peace.”

Penelope scowls at the smile on the succubus’ face and the determined set of Josie’s jaw. She cups Josie’s elbow and gently pulls the siphoner to the side.

Josie looks at her expectantly and Penelope has to hold back her disappointed sigh at the blank look she’s receiving.

Josie tries to avoid her eyes but Penelope ducks her head into the siphoner’s eyeline. She holds the brunette’s eyes, “Are you sure about this?”

“It’s not anything I haven’t done before.”

“This is different and you know it.” 

Josie stubbornly looks away and Penelope deflates. “Josie… Just- Please. Think this through before you commit to anything.”

“I’m not going to do anything right now. I’m going to see what everyone else thinks first,” Penelope winces at the pointed look Josie gives her, “Keeping secrets around here never ends well for anyone.”

The brunette spares the succubus a parting glance before spinning on her hell and leaving the basement. 

Penelope chases after her but thanks to the brunette’s far longer legs, she doesn’t catch her until halfway down the hall.

“Josie! Please, wait!” 

Penelope nearly slams into the brunette when she halts suddenly and rounds on the witch with an expectant look.

“It’s not-”

“Not what? Not another thing you kept from me?!”

“Jojo.” Penelope knows that her tone is far closer to begging then she would ever willingly admit but it gives Josie pause and that’s all that matters.

Josie’s mouth twists but her eyes hold steady as they pierce into Penelope, looking for any hesitation. Penelope shifts anxiously under the inspection but doesn’t dare break away from those brown eyes.

Satisfied for the moment, Josie nods to herself before fixing Penelope with a firm look, “We’ll talk about it later, right?”

“We will, I promise.” Penelope assures, relief flooding her entire system and resulting in a wide smile.

Her smile falls as Josie snorts, “And you’ve never broken one of them before.”

Penelope watches sadly as Josie turns and leaves her standing alone without looking back.


	4. almost in love (so close to love)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this it.
> 
> All titles come from Almost In Love by Olivia O'Brien
> 
> Thank you to everyone who commented, kudos'd, and read this

"No. Not a chance."

“Dad, it’s the only way.”

As Alaric’s frown deepens at her frustrated answer, Josie feels the need to sigh deeply. They had gathered everyone together in the headmaster's office so that she could tell them about her plan but so far it wasn’t going well.

Her dad firstly wasn’t happy that they had gone out to find the succubus and then not told him immediately when Penelope had locked them into the cell. He had been even angrier when he found out that Caroline had already known and had actively distracted him so they could question the succubus alone.

Josie tried to ignore the petty joy she felt as he realised that he was the only one who didn’t know what was happening. It had taken everything she had to hold back from telling him that it was how she and Lizzie felt every time he ignored them in favour of whispering away with Hope.

The frown on her father’s face shows no signs of easing and all Josie feels is tired. She’s already emotionally drained from everything with Penelope and trying to get her father to actually listen to them is a struggle on a normal day.

“We can find another option that doesn’t have you risking your life.” He says forcefully. Josie knows what’s coming next as he darts his eyes towards Hope quickly. “I’m sure that somewhere in the Mikaelson library there’s a spell to contain this sort of thing.”

“And who will you have cast it? Hope?”

She feels guilty for dragging the redhead into this, especially when she catches the wince from the tribrid as her name comes up. Alaric obviously misses her reaction as well as the thunderous scowl forming on Lizzie’s face.

“Josie, Hope is the best witch for the job.” He sighs out causing Josie’s jaw to tick. 

Through the bond, she can feel Lizzie’s mirroring emotions as she swallows down her anger at his constant dismissal. She clenches her jaw with all of her strength to keep herself from losing her control and just screaming.

She feels a shift in the air and just knows that Penelope has moved in closer to silently offer her support. Even with her current anger at Penelope, just knowing that the other witch is still there is enough to centre Josie. 

“Yeah, until it all goes to hell and the rest of us have to come in, still risking our lives, to try and stop whatever new threat _your_ plan releases.” She scoffs.

Alaric crosses his arms over his chest and stands taller with a frown. “Whatever threat pops up, I can handle it.”

“Can you?”

Caroline’s interruption snaps Josie and Alaric out of their staring contest and they both look at her in shock.

“What?” Alaric recovers first and turns to face the blonde vampire in confusion.

Caroline shrugs and meets his angry eyes evenly, “It sounds like your way of dealing with new threats is calling for Hope.”

Alaric shakes his head and starts the same spiel he always gives Josie and Lizzie whenever they question him about the tribrid. “She can handle it, she’s had training-”

“Training from you, Ric.”

A disbelieving smile forms on Josie’s face as Caroline cuts him off. She looks over at Lizzie and the blonde matches her expression.

They share a smile before looking back as Caroline gracefully unfolds herself from her position seated on the desk to match Alaric’s stance with her arms crossed, “Training that would be useful for the rest of the kids who somehow always end up fighting monsters every week.”

“I’m not going to put my daughters at risk-”

“They’re already at risk! They go in with no training or knowledge of offensive spells and the only one who knows how to fight is Hope.”

Josie feels anxiety twist her insides over and over as her parents argue over her plan. A part of her aches to just tell everyone to forget it and just let her dad and Hope do whatever spell he can find, but a larger part-the part she’s been using to chase Penelope-keeps her silent.

“Hope can handle herself.”

“So can Josie.”

At the definitive statement, Alaric looks over at Josie. She pulls herself to her full height and meets his eyes, for once refusing to back down from what she wants.

He huffs and spins back to Caroline. “You’re happy to just let her get herself killed?” 

The blonde gives him a rebuking look. “Of course not, but Josie and Lizzie are powerful, smart and capable witches. I trust them.”

Her unspoken _why don’t you?_ hangs in the air. The tense silence fills the room as they all watch Alaric and Caroline exchange pointed looks in a furious silent argument.

Alaric breaks from their stare to point an authoritative finger at each of them in turn. 

“This isn’t happening.” He states firmly before storming from the office.

The slam of the door behind him echoes threateningly in the room. Caroline closes her eyes and rubs at her temple, trying to ward off an oncoming headache. 

"Mum..." Josie takes an uncertain step forward but is halted by Caroline’s raised hand. THe blonde pulls her hand away from her head and opens her eyes to give Josie a hard look.

"I _specifically_ asked you not to do anything reckless or stupid and this is the plan you come up with?"

"You didn't ask that."

The siphoner sends a questioning glance Penelope’s way. Maybe she had asked that but Josie had been too caught up in Penelope to hear it? Penelope shakes her head slowly and the brunette turns back to her mother with a confused look.

"It was obviously implied Josette! Heavily!" The vampire let out a heavy sigh and slumped back onto the edge of the desk, pinching the bridge of her nose, “I don’t know about this.”

Josie raises her chin confidently. “I can handle this.”

“And you’re sure about that?” Caroline cocks an eyebrow at Josie who nods shortly. She hums and turns her eyes to the witch behind her. 

Josie looks back as well only to find Penelope already staring at her. 

“It’s nothing she hasn’t done before.” She says, expression unreadable. She breaks away from Josie’s stare and looks back at an expectant Caroline, “If Josie says she can do it, then I trust her.”

“That’s great, Satan thinks it’s a good plan.” Lizzie threw her hands in the air and levels Josie with a stern look, “And what happens when it goes wrong?”

“It won’t.”

“Of course it will, plans always go wrong here. What’s your backup?”

Josie’s confidence falters and she chews her lip while she avoids her sister's eyes. She darts a look up at her mother who looks particularly exasperated. Lizzie’s face grows darker as Josie’s silence drags on longer. 

“Oh, great! Good plan, sounds really well thought out and solid.”

“Lizzie.”

The siphoner summarily ignores her mother’s warning and continues snarkily, “Just to recap here, your plan is to go into the succubus’ cell -alone- and siphon all of her magic- also alone- and your backup is what? A prayer circle?”

The brunette rolls her eyes as her twin gets increasingly dramatic. When Lizzie finishes she gives her a patient look, “We can put a barrier spell around the cell. If anything goes wrong, the succubus still won’t be able to escape.”

“That’s great and all Josie but that still leaves you trapped in there with the succubus.” Hope, who had been trying her hardest to be forgotten in the corner of the room, steps up. She squares her shoulders and lifts her chin, determination etched into her face. “I’ll go in there with you.”

Josie’s shaking her head before the redhead even finishes speaking. She’s never had to argue this much in her life. First with Penelope, then the succubus, Lizzie, Penelope again, succubus, Penelope some more, her dad, Lizzie and now Hope.

“I can do this myself!”

“You’re not going in there alone Josie.” Caroline says sternly.

“Mum!”

Caroline stands from the desk and gives Josie her Mum Glare, something neither of the twins have ever been able to combat. Josie hears Lizzie let out a sympathetic hiss as the full force of the glare is focused on the brunette.

“No arguments. Someone else is going in there with you and everyone else will stand on the other side of the spell line. If anything goes wrong, the outer team moves in.”

“There’s a barrier spell, how is the outer team-” Lizzie trails off at the obvious looks being directed at her. If anything went wrong, the fastest way to bring down a barrier spell would be to siphon it, which left only the one option. “No.”

“Lizzie-”

“If I’m not in there with you, Hope’s going.”

“Hope is not going-”

“I’m not letting you go in there alone!”

Josie lets out a frustrated huff. “I’m not going to be in there alone, Penelope’s going to be in there with me.”

“What?” Three voices chorus back at her.

Josie forges ahead, not letting the others' shock derail her now. Her mum’s face steadily grows more amused and the brunette doesn’t dare a look behind her to see the shock no doubt written across Penelope’s face. She probably should have given the witch more of a heads up before throwing her into the mix but she had to admit, she really enjoyed throwing Penelope off guard.

Lizzie’s mouth opens and closes as she tries to think of words strong enough to yell. Josie barely manages to smother a laugh when a gaping Hope blindly reaches over to close Lizzie’s mouth.

Pursing her lips to stop herself from smiling, Josie reaches backwards slightly and feels Penelope’s fingertips brush against hers lightly. Relief floods her system as Penelope smoothly slots into place next to her as if this had been the plan all along and not something that Josie had come up with two minutes ago.

“Penelope’s going to be in there with me. The succubus likes her-”

“Not the only one apparently.”

“-And she won’t let anything happen.” The brunette shoots her sister a dirty look for her loud mutter but Lizzie just glares back. Josie huffs and knocks her hand gently against Penlepe’s before stepping away towards the door. “I’m gonna go get ready.”

Once the door closes behind the siphoner, Penelope turns to Caroline with a serious look.

“Josie will be safe.”

Lizzie scoffs loudly and advances on the witch who sneers back. “Like I’m about to trust _you_ to not let Josie get hurt.”

Penelope glances past Lizzie to Hope who stands with her arms crossed and the shadow of a scowl on her face directed at the witch. She looks back to Caroline who has a small, kind smile on her face, “I won’t let anything happen to her.”

Caroline moves over to her and tries to nudge Lizzie out of the way. The siphoner refuses to move at first, intent on threatening Penelope as much as possible, but Caroline just rolls her eyes and lifts her daughter out of the way. Penelope chuckles at the indignant squawk from the siphoner as she’s set down next to a smirking Hope. 

Caroline gives Lizzie a stern look as the blonde huffily crosses her arms and pouts. Penelope shoots the siphoner a smirk and preens under the gentle smile the vampire turns on her.

“I know you won’t, Penelope. We’re going to get the barrier spell up and running." She lightly squeezes the witch's shoulder and jerks her head towards the door, "You should go help Josie.”

Penelope smiles thinly and nods before taking the same exit as the brunette siphoner.

Lizzie throws a pointed finger at the exit just as the door closes behind Penelope, “That’s it?! We’re just going to let them hash out their relationship problems while we're actively fighting a Malivore monster?!" She bursts.

Caroline makes a considering face before shaking her head and giving her daughter a bright smile.

"If you're in Mystic Falls and waiting for there _not_ to be a life or death crisis to sort out your relationship, you'll be waiting forever."

She stops at the door and raises an expectant eyebrow when she turns to find Hope and Lizzie not following her.

The two teens scramble to catch up with the vampire as she strides towards the basement.

"Maybe their talk could have waited until after Josie deals with the succubus though?" Hope rushes out the question, silently cursing her height as she has to jog slightly to keep up with the taller blondes.

"Please, those two haven't figured communication out after nearly two years." Caroline scoffs. She tosses a skeptical eyebrow over her shoulder at the redhead, "You really think they're going to suddenly have a heart to heart because Josie's mother suggested it?"

"Mum's right." Lizzie gives Hope a haughty smirk as the redhead speed walks next to her. Hope rolls her eyes but still gestures for the smirking blonde to explain.

"Penelope never does what she's told. I must have told her to go to hell hundreds of times now but she's still here."

-

“Hey, Jojo.” 

Josie chuckles as she looks over her shoulder to shoot a wry grin at the witch leaning against her door frame. 

“Here to escort me?”

Penelope pushes off the door with a laugh. Josie feels her breath hitch as the witch draws closer with a smirk dancing along her lips. She watches as she comes to a stop, inspecting Josie’s armoire and the items scattered on the top of it. 

“I like what you’ve done with the place.” Penelope pauses as her fingers catch on a familiar trinket box. Embarrassed, Josie reaches past her to snatch the box and quickly shoves it in a drawer without meeting Penelope’s eyes.

“What are you doing here, Penelope?”

Penelope’s eyes stayed on the drawer that Josie shoved the box into. Her voice is distracted when she answers, “I was coming to check on you.” 

Josie was hoping Penelope would leave it alone but wide green eyes flick up to hers. “You kept that?”

Josie looks away and puts distance between them. She can’t deal with Penelope looking up at her with the ghost of their relationship shining from her eyes. She darts a glance over her shoulder back at the witch and sees her gently laying her fingers in the spot she just snatched the box from.

“Does it matter?” She breathes heavily.

Penelope looks sadly between the armoire and the siphoner. Her voice is fragile as she quietly answers, “You know it does.”

Josie bites back the tears that build in her eyes. Her teeth sink into her lip in an effort to contain the sobs aching to tear themselves from her throat. 

Penelope’s mouth twitches as she tries to keep the emotions from showing on her face. Her eyes roam across the rest of the room, her gaze catching on empty spaces in Josie’s decorations. 

Spaces she knew used to be filled with photos and memories of the two of them.

The witch straightens and her shoulders tense noticeably before she turns to Josie with a strained mask on her face. “But I guess you’re right, it doesn’t matter right now. Are you ready?”

Desperate for a reprieve from the emotions that Penelope is inadvertently stirring, Josie focuses on the reason she was even there. Anger stirs in her when she considers that Penelope had probably been sent to check on her. 

“Why does everyone think that I can’t do this?” Her fierce tone and question takes Penelope by surprise. She stares for a minute, mouth opening and closing as she forms sentences but scraps them before she provokes Josie. 

There’s a beat of silence before Penelope sighs roughly and cautiously steps forward to close the distance between them, “Of course you can do this, Josie. I always knew that you could do this.”

"Then why don't you trust me?" Josie asks brokenly.

"What? Of _course_ I trust you! Why would you think that-"

"If you trust me, why are you here checking up on me?"

Penelope scowls fiercely as she furiously paces away from the siphoner. She spins back around and throws her hands up in frustration, "Because I’m scared!”

The loud admission silences Josie. She watches with disbelieving eyes as Penelope rakes a hand through her hair. Josie’s head falls to the side as her brain stutters to a stop from the confession. Penelope had never admitted to being scared willingly, Josie had always had to chip away at her walls until she would finally break.

“What?”

Penelope breathes out in a rush. She inches towards Josie, eyebrows turning up as she pleadingly explains, “Jojo, you’re going to be taking in _a lot_ of magic. Magic that we don’t know how you’ll react to. Of course I’m scared.”

Josie watches her approach blankly, her mind working furiously to make sense of the situation. As Penelope explains herself, Josie feels the smile form and grow on her face. 

She smiles fondly at her as she draws closer, “I’m going to be fine."

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do." Josie steps towards Penelope as the witch watches her warily. She sucks her bottom lip into her mouth to stifle a wider smile and keeps her gaze locked on her own hand as she reaches out slowly to brush her fingers against Penelope’s, "You’ll be there.”

Penelope’s face twists into a disbelieving grin. Her eyes dart from their hands up to meet Josie’s shining eyes. The brunette’s grin widens at the cautious joy shining from those green eyes.

"Why do you think I’m not worried?” She asks softly. She decides to run with the sudden streak of bold confidence that had just made itself known. Josie gently reaches out her other hand to sweep a lock of raven hair behind the girl’s ear. 

Penelope closes her eyes and leans her head into Josie’s hand. Sensing that she was no longer talking about the plan for the succubus, Penelope opens her eyes and pulls her head away from the siphoner.

“I trust you Penelope. I just - I just wish that you would trust me too.”

“ _Josie_.”

“You promised.”

“And I meant it. We _will_ talk, Josie.” She grasps Josie’s hand with her own and squeezes it lightly, “But maybe we can wait until we have no other pressing commitments?”

Josie frowns and fidgets with the witch’s fingers anxiously. "You won't run away?"

Penelope smiles wryly and cocks an amused eyebrow, "I've found that running from you ends with me drunk on the roof."

Josie laughs shortly and grins, "And if mum took all the alcohol…"

"Guess that means I can't run away now." Penelope shrugs with a careless smile.

"I guess not."

They lose track of how many minutes they spend just smiling at each other but neither really cares. Penelope is the first to break the smile.

She pulls away until they’re connected only by their intertwined hands breaching the gap between them. At the loss, Josie lets out a noise that could easily be mistaken for a whine. 

Penelope laughs softly and holds the siphoner’s hand with both of her own, “I’ll meet you down there.”

“You’re leaving?” Josie pouts and tugs lightly on Penelope’s hand to prevent her from pulling away fully.

“Just for a minute.” Josie’s pout deepens and Penelope huffs a laugh before stepping closer. She cups Josie’s jaw lightly with a hand and dazzles the brunette with a crooked grin that always worked, "I'll be there, Jojo."

Josie nuzzles into her palm and closes her eyes to hold onto the feeling for just a moment more. She keeps her eyes closed as she feels Penelope begin to slip away. She doesn’t want to have to watch the back of Penelope disappear as she walks away from her again.

She opens her eyes after a moment and finds herself alone in the room. Josie tears her eyes from the doorway knowing that, despite her fantasies, Penelope wouldn’t reappear.

She starts to rush through getting ready, holding on to Penelope’s promise that she would see her in the basement.

-

Josie steps into the basement and does a double take. She comes to a stop next to Lizzie and Hope as they finish the barrier spell preparation, “I thought you were angry about this. What are you doing here?”

Alaric stands stiffly to the side, whiteknuckling the loaded crossbow in his grasp. He risks a glance at Josie but quickly darts his eyes back to the unimpressed succubus, “I don’t agree with this plan but if you think that I would let one of my girls go near that thing alone, you’ve got another thing coming.”

Josie blanches and shoots the others a panicked look, Hope grimaces back with wide eyes. Lizzie looks at the both of them quickly and hastily pastes a too-wide smile on her face.

“Nobody tell him," She hisses urgently. Josie and Hope nod and force their best innocent smiles.

Caroline draws their attention as she clears her throat and gives them a chastising look, clearly having heard Lizzie. The three of them share a sheepish look and Caroline rolls her eyes as her face softens into a fond look. 

“Josie, you ready sweetie?” She holds out a hand for Josie to step forward.

Josie happily takes her mum’s hand and lets her draw her forward into the circle around the cell. She casts a searching look around the basement but comes up empty. “Where’s Penelope?”

“With any luck; Hell.” 

Caroline frowns at an unrepentant Lizzie while Josie shoots her an angry glare. Lizzie simply raises her hands and shrugs.

Caroline turns back to Josie with the beginnings of a frown, “I thought she was supposed to be with you?”

“She said she would be here.” Josie answers, anxiety and panic beginning to build in her chest. 

After everything that they had just gone through, she knew that Penelope wouldn’t just leave without a good reason and surely she would at least tell Josie. Her imagination running wild and fuelling her stressed panic, Josie opened her mouth to postpone the plan until she could find the witch.

“I’m here.”

Penelope’s amused voice floats through the room and Josie nearly gives herself whiplash as she snaps her head around to watch her saunter into the circle. 

“Damn it.” 

The mutter coming from behind her has Josie rolling her eyes but she can feel her mouth lift at the slow cocky smirk it brings to Penelope’s face.

“Lizzie,” Caroline barks, “Play nice.”

“Fine.” Lizzie snarks. With faked enthusiasm and a wide false smile, she turns to the witch saccharinely, “Oh Penelope! So glad you’re here!”

Penelope’s smirk stretches into a wicked grin and she blows a kiss at the blonde. Josie felt a stab of jealousy but she knew that it was only meant to aggravate her twin. Her mother’s chuckle from next to her told her that it was probably working as well.

“We’re all set up, so whenever you’re ready.” 

Josie nods absently at her mother as she watches Penelope move to the cell. She distantly registers her mum chuckling and leaving them alone in the circle as the barrier spell hums to life around them.

She drags herself from her stare when she realises that Penelope is now looking back. Josie looks away quickly and quietly clears her throat, she risks a glance back at the witch to find amusement shining in those green eyes and a smile on those lips that Josie has _definitely_ stopped thinking about.

Penelope lets a slow smile crawl across her face and Josie ignores the heat rising in her cheeks as a result of getting caught staring at Penelope _by_ Penelope. The witch lets her eyes roam over Josie in a way that the siphoner is certain isn’t appropriate with her family in the room. 

Josie swallows thickly when Penelope’s eyes meet hers again, the witch shoots her a wink and her arrogance is _not_ attractive and _definitely_ doesn’t distract Josie from her task. She shakes her head to clear it from the Penelope induced fog and the witch in question tilts her head inquisitively, flicking her eyes between the siphoner and the cell. 

Josie gives a firm nod and Penelope unlocks the door to pull the succubus out. There’s an exchange that Josie doesn’t hear but the snarl on Penelope’s face has her thinking that it was probably better that she missed it.

“You brought your whole family here? Macabre.” 

Josie is almost impressed. Even with Penelope keeping a tight grip on her elbow as she drags the succubus in front of the siphoner, the succubus still finds it in herself to taunt them. 

Penelope smiles viciously, “They’re just there to make sure you die horribly in case this doesn’t work.”

“Well, someone’s a little touchy.” The succubus frowns mockingly. She cocks her head at the witch and pouts, “Are you sure they would be able to kill me like this? Are you sure _you_ would be able to stand back and watch me die? I am quite cute.”

Penelope’s lips draw back over her teeth, the threat clear, “Trust me _babe_ ,” She spits the term of endearment poisonously. Josie can see the witch’s fingers dig into the succubus’ elbow in a grip that must be painful. “You do anything that could hurt the _real_ Josie and I’ll end you myself.”

“Oooh, kinky. Don’t tell lovergirl over there, she might get jealous.” Penelope’s lip curls as the succubus winks at her. 

“Why would I be jealous when the only reason she would want you is because you look like me?” 

Josie smiles sweetly and enjoys the flash of surprise across the succubus’ face before she quickly schools it again. Penelope is also staring at her open-mouthed in shocked surprise, which is almost as good as taking the succubus by surprise. Josie locks eyes with Penelope and lets her confidence grow at the fire burning in the witch’s green eyes.

The succubus laughs loudly and grins at the brunette, “Loving the confidence there, Jojo!”

Josie rolls her eyes. “Let’s just get this over with.”

The succubus scoffs and holds her hands out for the siphoner after Penelope pointedly clears her throat. Josie reaches for her hands but stops just short, hesitating as apprehension for her plan begins to catch up to her now that it is happening.

“Josie?”

She looks up, biting her lip, to find Penelope’s intense eyes focused on her in concern. The witch has angled herself so that she’s largely blocking everyone’s view of the siphoner. Penelope’s eyes flit across her face and Josie feels a bolt of terror flash through her. She knows that the witch can read her better than just about anyone and she doesn’t want Penelope to know about the little voice whispering in her ear, telling her that she’ll fail.

Penelope’s concern melts away to reveal a small, proud smile. The witch relaxes and lets go of the succubus. Josie doesn’t understand Penelope’s sudden onset of confidence but she lets it buoy her.

She pulls herself to her full height and flexes out her hands, her fingers tingling at the hum of magic hanging in the air.

“You got this?”

Josie’s beaming smile widens at Penelope’s teasing tone. The witch smirks while running her eyes up and down the brunette’s body. “Yeah, I thought so.”

Josie’s smile sharpens and flexes her neck side to side. She shoots the witch a wink as the raven-haired girl moves to stand behind her, letting out a short laugh at Josie’s brimming confidence. Penelope settles just over Josie’s shoulder and the siphoner feels her veins thrum with anticipation of the imminent influx of magic.

She snatches the succubus’ hands and _pulls._

Josie has siphoned from a lot of places. A lot of people, too. She’s siphoned from the freaking one and only Tribrid for crying out loud!

But this is like nothing she’s ever done.

It’s like she’s thrown open every gate used to keep her power in check. Pulled out every stop that had been put in place from her father’s fear. Those dark little impulses that she usually ignores roar to life and rather than ignoring them, she indulges them.

Magic floods her system too quickly for Josie to process how much she has actually taken, all she knows is that it’s too much at once.

Overwhelmed, a gasping Josie yanks her hands away to break her connection with the succubus. She doubles over as the magic courses through her.

“Josie!” 

She hears Penelope’s panicked exclamation and feels her hands rub between her back and shoulders, as if she’s trying to siphon Josie’s pain from her.

Josie strains her neck to see her family and Hope on the edge of the barrier spell, prepared to charge through at the slightest indication. Lizzie already has her hands against the barrier, Hope next to her in a fighting stance. Alaric has his crossbow raised and is barking for them to lower the spell but Caroline stands firm in holding the other three back.

Josie struggles to stand straight and faces Penelope’s concerned expression, “It’s okay, I’m okay.”

“The hell you are!” Green eyes blazing with fury, Penelope rounds on the succubus and growls, “What did you do?!”

“I was set free.” The succubus says joyously.

Josie blearily looks up as the succubus stretches and shakes out her body. Her view is blocked when Penelope steps in front of her protectively, magic sparking from her fingertips 

“Oh, please,” The succubus raises an eyebrow at the display, “Relax, Penelope. Your precious little siphoner looks to be holding up her end of the bargain. I feel weaker than usual.”

Josie breathes heavily as she finally straightens. One of Penelope’s hands twitches backwards as she registers her movement and Josie staggers forward, brushing her hand against Penelope’s as she goes.

The two stand together as the succubus’s mouth forms into a wide grin and realizations light in her eyes. “I gotta say kid, you did great.”

Josie and Penelope share a wary glance before subtly moving into a defensive stance. The succubus was too excited for either of their liking. 

The succubus locks eyes with Josie who finds herself filled with trepidation for some reason that she couldn’t quite figure out. Her eyes widen as the air around the succubus begins to shimmer and warp. It’s then that Josie realises what she’s done.

She siphoned the magic from the succubus.

_Penelope’s_ magic included.

When the succubus said that she was set free, she wasn’t talking about the cell. She was talking about the spell Penelope cast that trapped the succubus in the one form. So now the succubus was free to switch into whatever form she chose. And from the predatory gleam that Josie had caught in the succubus’ eyes, she had a sinking feeling that she knew who would be the first target.

Sure enough, the air stilled and cleared to reveal the perfect clone of Penelope standing in place of Josie’s form.

“Well, fuck.”

The Penelope in front of her laughs as Josie feels the heat rise in her cheeks. She had been too angry to notice the first time she had met the succubus in Penelope’s form, or maybe it was because she had taken so much of the succubus’ magic. Either way, she had only now become aware of the alluring pull she felt towards succubus Penelope. 

“Try to contain yourself, _Jojo_. Your family are right there.”

It was only after the teasing words shattered the haze of Josie’s mind, that she realised she had been mindlessly getting closer to the succubus. Embarrassed, she hurriedly steps away from the succubus only to bump into the real Penelope, who steadies the siphoner with a gentle hold on her elbows.

Penelope looks particularly shaken as she glares at the succubus. Josie darts her eyes away quickly when Penelope turns to give her a confused look, “What is happening right now?”

They both ignore Lizzie’s loud heckling from the other side of the barrier spell and Caroline’s subsequent reprimanding. Josie winces at the reminder that her entire family is also witnessing the succubus and her reaction to it.

“Think about it for a minute. I’m sure you can figure it out.” The succubus tilts her head and smirks at the witch. Josie curses internally as her heart pounds at the sight. She curses again when the succubus turns that cocky, teasing grin on her, “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think little Josie might just have a crush.”

If this was what Penelope had to deal with when the succubus was trapped in Josie’s form, the witch has far better self control than Josie ever gave her credit for.

“Let’s keep going.” Penelope growls.

“Oh, I don’t know now. I think I might just like this new look for me,” The succubus bets her eyes at Josie, “What do you think, Josie?”

“I think that if you’ve changed your mind, Penelope will be happy to change it back for you.” She delivers the threat lightly but Penelope steps forward on her cue with magic crackling dangerously around her hands and a darkening scowl firmly in place.

“You're just no fun.”

Josie grins at the pout on the succubus’ face. She turns to the Penelope next to her and the grin becomes roguish, “Never heard that coming from that face before.”

Penelope rolls her eyes disinterestedly but Josie can see the pink tinge creeping onto her cheeks. “Just go kill the succubus me.”

Josie giggles and nearly skips towards the succubus. Making Penelope blush was rare but she always looked so cute when she did. Josie is still smiling when she grabs onto the succubus’ hands again.

Her bright smile wanes when she glances up to see the (annoyingly) adorable confused frown on fake Penelope’s face.

“I’m a little disappointed, I’ve got to say. I was expecting a little more of a reaction from you.” The succubus looks genuinely confused. 

Josie has to keep a constant stream of reminders in her head that it’s not actually Penelope in front of her because otherwise, she would do something that would absolutely embarrass her in front of real Penelope. 

Maybe if the succubus had switched to this form before Josie had the chance to talk to Penelope on the roof, it would have shaken her but now?

Now Josie was honest with herself about what she wanted. 

“Wanting Penelope hasn’t exactly been a well hidden secret of mine.” 

As she says it, she flicks a flirty look over her shoulder at the real version of the witch. The light pink tinge on her face deepens as Penelope awkwardly twitches a hand in an approximation of a wave with a shy smile on her face.

She catches sight of the rest of the gang on the outside of the spell as she turns back. Lizzie seems to be trying to give herself amnesia as she thumps her head against the barrier over and over again. Hope looks torn between stopping Lizzie, joining her or just leaving altogether. Her father looks bewildered and Josie ignores the familiar guilt that he’s so disconnected from his daughters that he had no idea about what had been happening between her and Penelope recently. Caroline has her hands clasped over her mouth but they do nothing to hide her beaming smile as she bounces in place. 

Josie begins siphoning lightly, expecting the dizzying rush of magic, but this time there's something calmer about the magic. It doesn’t feel like before when it felt like it was burning through her system and setting her every nerve on fire. 

This was calmer. 

The electricity was still there, zinging through her but it wasn’t overwhelming this time. The magic built and built until Josie realises that the magic intake was dropping off. Not sure of when she closed her eyes, Josie opens them to judge the state of the succubus.

Still in Penelope’s form, the succubus looks peaceful. No scowl, no smirk, no devious intentions visible on her face. She looks happy.

“Are you ready?” Josie asks quietly, not wanting to disrupt the peace that the succubus seems to have found.

The succubus opens her eyes and smiles gently at Josie, “I’ve been ready for decades.” 

She looks past Josie to Penelope and shoots the witch a final wink. Squeezing Josie’s hands gently, the succubus lets one side of her mouth curl up into a grin, “Thanks, cutie.”

Josie nods lightly and feels the last dredges of magic leak out of the succubus. With nothing left, the succubus shimmers and fades away and Josie is left holding nothing but air.

Penelope quietly steps to her side and rests a hand on her back. Josie spins and buries her face into the witch’s shoulder as she clings to her tightly. Penelope’s arms wrap around her and squeeze, silently reassuring the brunette that she was there and that she was okay.

“It wasn’t you, it wasn’t you, it wasn’t you.” Josie couldn’t manage anything but those words over and over as she held tightly to Penelope. Siphoning from the succubus had been fine but she had never considered that she would have to watch as a perfect clone of Penelope faded away into nothingness because of her.

She felt more hands come to rest on her back and knew that the barrier spell must have come down but she still couldn’t bring herself to pull away from the witch.

“Hey, Josie.” She turns her head to acknowledge her sister’s voice, “Penelope’s going to take you back to the room, okay? We’ll handle everything here.” 

Josie nods shakily and pulls away from Penelope’s neck only for the witch to take her hand and pull the brunette out of the basement. Josie has to bite her lip to stop the sob in her throat when she realises that the witch is keeping herself firmly in Josie’s field of vision so she can see for herself that Penelope is okay.

-

“Pen?”

“Yeah, Jo?”

Penelope turns from her spot by the windowsill to see Josie curled on her side in the bed. At Lizzie’s insistence she had guided her back to the twins’ room but couldn’t bring herself to sit on Josie’s bed.

Josie props herself up against the headboard, pulling her knees up and wrapping her arms around them tightly. She rests her chin on her knees and looks up at her. “Can we talk now? You promised.”

Penelope’s mouth twitches anxiously at Josie's small voice. Josie’s eyes roam over the witch. Penelope’s face drops when she realises that Josie is reassuring herself that Penelope is still there, still alive. 

That it hadn’t been the real her fading away at Josie’s hands.

She takes a slow step towards the bed while she considers Josie’s words and answers carefully, “I think you maybe need to rest, Josie.”

Josie shakes her head, unfurling from her position and kicking her legs over the side of the bed. She reaches a hand out to beckon her closer. “I don’t want to sleep right now, Penelope.”

Penelope’s brows draw together in consternation. She bites the inside of her cheek and swings out her hand to wrap around Josie’s. “Are you sure?”

Josie tugs her bottom lip between her teeth and ducks her head. Penelope ignores the thump of her heart at the sight of the dejected brunette slumped on the edge of her bed. All she wants is to bring the light back into Josie’s eyes and have her smile at her again.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to watch you fade into nothing over and over again. So yes, I am sure.”

Josie raises her head and looks at Penelope with sorrowful eyes, uses Penelope’s hold on her hands to tug the witch closer. Penelope lets herself be pulled, not like she was going to ever fight too hard against Josie wanting her- _needing_ her- to be close.

“Then we won’t sleep.” Penelope feels the blush rising in her cheeks as Josie snorts and raises an incredulous eyebrow. Josie has a wicked smile forming on her face, causing Penelope to roll her eyes and grin fondly, “That wasn’t a line.”

“I’m almost disappointed.”

She huffs in amusement as Josie pulls her onto the bed next to her. Penelope laughs as she kicks off her shoes and moves to sit against the headboard, leaving Josie to pout when she moves further away. Penelope smiles softly and darts her eyes between the empty spot next to her and the pouting brunette. Josie accepts the unspoken invitation and slides herself next to her.

Penelope swallows dryly at the image of Josie crawling up the bed towards her. It makes matters worse for her when Josie hesitates for only a moment before wrapping an arm over her, curling into her side and resting her head on Penelope’s chest. Penelope instinctively holds Josie closer to her, arms acting of their own accord from muscle memory of the many nights they had spent wrapped around each other in the same fashion.

Josie’s arm tightens it’s hold around Penelope’s middle and she shifts her head until she’s resting comfortably as close to her as she can without just outright mounting her. When she speaks, her voice is muffled by Penelope’s shirt but, much to the witch’s chagrin, the teasing comes through loud and clear.

“You sure that wasn’t a line?”

Penelope absently traces shapes along the brunette’s arm, ignoring how good, how _right_ , it felt to not only have Josie back in her arms, but to once more be held in Josie’s. 

“It worked like one, but no, it wasn’t a line.” She looks down at Josie with her cockiest smirk, “I guess I’m just _that_ good.”

She laughs and tries to wiggle away when Josie uses the hand wrapped around her side to pinch her. Penelope’s eyes widen when she realises the new position her wriggling had brought them to. Josie is now half on top of her with an arm and a leg wrapped around her, and they’ve both slipped down the bed so they’re no longer sitting against the headboard but lying propped by the pillows.

Penelope wets her suddenly dry lips and prays that Josie won’t bring up her racing heartbeat. There’s no way she can fool herself into thinking that the brunette doesn’t know the effect that she’s having right now; Josie’s grin is just a touch too proud and knowing. Penelope risks another glance at Josie’s face only to be met by that exact grin.

It takes her a moment but she soon realises that Josie’s fingers on her side are tapping out a rhythm. It takes another moment for her to realise that the rhythm is the same beat as the thumping of Penelope’s heart. Josie must see the realisation on her face because her bottom lip is sucked into her mouth and the mirth in her eyes tells Penelope that she is barely holding back her laughter.

Penelope scoffs and looks away in a halfhearted attempt to hide her blush. Josie breaks into giggles and holds her tighter so she can’t pull away in her embarrassment. She’s surprised when Josie’s hand lightly cups her chin and pulls her gently to face her. Penelope reluctantly flicks her eyes down to see Josie’s wide, beaming smile and closes them when her heartbeat reacts to the sight.

“Whatever. It’s not like you didn’t already know.” She mutters under her breath. Josie, close enough to hear it, somehow finds it within herself to look happier than she already did. Penelope just accepts her fate and wraps her arm around Josie's shoulders to pull her in tighter.

Josie lays her head on her chest again and brings her hand up to draw patterns on Penelope’s stomach with her fingertips. Penelope can hear the smile in her voice, quiet as it is, “You’re going to stay awake with me?”

“I _did_ tell you that I wouldn’t leave. That counts for dream-me too, so if losing sleep means keeping my promise,” She looks down to meet Josie’s eyes and trails off as she gets sucked into them, just like she always does. She averts her eyes to watch her fingers play with the ends of Josie’s hair, “That’s an easy deal.”

Penelope can’t hold back her smile as the girl in her arms hums happily and resettles into her side. She feels it when Josie takes a bracing breath and her own catches. She’s not sure she can handle another emotionally draining conversation tonight but for Josie, she’ll try.

“We need to talk anyway. May as well make it when neither of us can run away.”

“Or avoid the topic?” She says pointedly.

“Or avoid the topic.” Josie agrees drolly. Penelope raises an eyebrow at Josie's following eye roll. Her face drops when Josie looks up at her with a serious expression, sadness shadowing her eyes.

“You said you trust me, Pen.”

“I do.”

Josie pushes herself up onto an elbow, hovering over her. If they weren't dancing around a conversation that could destroy the both of them, Penelope would have trouble stopping herself from pushing up to steal a kiss.

As it was, she was frozen as a slow dread crept into her. Josie wasn't about to let this go. Penelope closes her eyes as gentle fingertips trace the lines of her face. She opens her eyes when the fingers pause at her lips, meeting Josie's own darkened eyes. 

Penelope keeps her eyes locked on Josie's as she purses her lips to lightly kiss the siphoners fingers. Josie's eyes drop immediately, staring at the witch's lips with an open longing. 

Josie's lower lip trembles drawing Penelope’s attention. The siphoner's hand moves from her lips to cupping her cheek, Penelope doesn't try to hide how she leans her face into the palm to brush a kiss there. Her chest aches at Josie's sad little smile, "Then why are you so scared to be honest with me?”

“Because I don’t want to lose you." She answers honestly. 

“It’s that bad?”

“It’s…” Penelope trails off shaking her head before sitting up, pulling away from Josie in the process. She curls in on herself, burying her head into her hands.

Josie follows her up, wrapping her arms around the witch in a tight hug before trying to gently pull her hands from her face, “Hey, it’s okay. I’m here.”

“It’s why we broke up.” Penelope knew that Josie would hear her words, no matter how muffled they were. She knew that the Josie heard her when the body behind her stiffened and drew away slightly.

Josie’s hand around her shoulder tightened with the tension that Penelope could just _feel_ coursing through her body. Penelope sucks her bottom lip into her mouth and forces herself to look over at Josie. 

Josie’s face is projecting the emotions spiralling through her mind; despair, confusion, vulnerability, doubt. The gang’s all there and Penelope winces at the doubt in particular. Having Josie question Penelope’s feelings for her was never something she wanted and the guilt nearly overwhelms her.

Josie avoids her eyes and awkwardly tucks her hair behind her ear, “What do you mean? I thought you just - you just stopped…”

“I didn’t. Even _now_ I-” Penelope pushes down her fear and lifts Josie’s chin until the brunette slowly meets her eyes. Her lips curl upwards slightly at the corners as she sees the hope beginning to light in Josie’s eyes, “Even now, I still do.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

Josie’s eyes flick between her own, searching for _something_ in Penelope’s eyes, “But this secret that you’re keeping, that’s why?” Penelope sighs out a heavy breath and nods slightly. Josie’s tone turns steely, “What is it, Penelope?”

“It’s not necessarily mine to tell.” Penelope says cagily after a moment’s contemplation.

“The hell it’s not!” Josie bursts out. Penelope watches on guiltily as the brunette paces, her emotions rendering her unable to hold still. The witch’s eyes widen as Josie rounds on her, furious determination shining from her eyes, “You let it come between us before, don’t let it do the same now.”

Penelope slams a hand down on the bed. “It won’t be just us that it comes between!” Her exclamation brings Josie to a halt. Penelope sighs and drags a hand down her face. She looks up at Josie apprehensively, “It’ll come between your entire family, Jojo.”

Josie’s face turns deadly. “Tell me. Now.”

“It’s called The Merge.”

Josie shakes her head in confusion, “The merge? The merge of what?”

“The Merge of the Gemini twins.”

Penelope’s devastated tone stills Josie, just like she knew it would. All Penelope can do is watch with tears building in her eyes as Josie looks at her, dread written all over her face and through her tone.

“Lizzie and I are the only Gemini left.” 

Penelope’s teary downturned face must give something away because Josie collapses onto the bed next to her. The two of them sit there in silence, both staring straight ahead and trying to work through the emotions brought to light by Penelope’s reveal.

“This merge, it’ll kill one of us, won’t it?”

Penelope turns her head to take in Josie’s stiff profile. Her face is void of any emotion and she didn’t really ask it as a question, there was a certainty in her words that meant she had figured out at least part of her curse.

In all the different fantasy scenarios Penelope had dreamed up where she would tell Josie about the merge, the hardest part was always telling Josie that she was cursed. She had thought that telling her the specifics would be easy after that but Penelope was now realising how wrong she was. 

None of this was easy. She had to fight herself to push every word from her lips. Telling Josie the specifics was beginning to seem worse than telling her about The Merge in the first place. Not only did she have to tell the girl that she loved that she would either kill her sister or die, but she had to tell her how as well.

How was she supposed to do this?

“When you’re 22.” She starts hesitantly, Josie faces her and Penelope can’t continue. Not when Josie is looking at her with such shattered eyes. But Josie needs to know this, so Penelope takes a deep breath and forces herself on. 

“There’s a ritual and the weaker twin is.... absorbed.”

Josie’s eyebrows raise and she mouths the word silently. Penelope confirms it with a shaky nod. Josie faces the wall again, eyes unseeing as she tries to process everything Penelope has told her. 

Penelope is ready to leave to find Caroline, Lizzie, or Hope and bring them to Josie who obviously needs the support right now. Hell, Penelope is so desperate that she’ll even settle for bringing in Alaric. Whatever Josie needs, she’s ready to do.

And then Josie reaches over to grab her hand.

Penelope can do nothing but stare as the brunette takes her captive hand and drags it into her own lap, staring as she intertwines their fingers.

“How do you know?”

Penelope is so distracted by Josie holding her hand that she nearly misses the question entirely. She grimaces as she realises that to answer Josie, she would have to explain everything about the pens and the book. Neither of which were items very high on her ‘Discuss with Jojo’ list.

“It’s kind of a long story that you’ll be pretty mad about, I’ll tell you later.” She rushes out. Josie frowns and Penelope squeezes her hand and offers a truth, “But... I found out from your dad.”

Josie’s eyes snap to her own, a familiar anger stirring to life in their depths, “My dad knows?”

The betrayal in her voice gives Penelope pause before she bends to Josie’s demands of honesty. With a slow, short nod, Penelope destroys the hope that she knew had to be building in her head. 

“There’s now way to stop it, is there?” Defeat hanging heavy in her voice, Josie’s shoulders slump and her body seems to almost cave in on itself. Penelope holds tight to the hands in hers and feels the light pull as Josie’s emotions break through her control and she siphons, “The weaker twin… You think that’s me?”

“No.” Penelope is shaking her head before Josie can even finish her sentence. She slides to her knees in front of Josie and bobs her head to catch and hold the siphoner’s eyes. She continues gently, knowing that this was the cause of the majority of their worst fights, “But I also think that you never fight for yourself when it comes to Lizzie.”

“So you left.” Josie smiles ruefully.

Penelope turns her head away and blows out a huff. She didn’t want to see the pity in Josie’s eyes when she explains her plan and how it failed.

“I stupidly thought that maybe- maybe if you had something to fight for then you’d-” 

“But I didn’t fight for you.”

The words do more to hurt Penelope than she thought they would. It wasn’t even meant to be hurtful, just a statement of fact but it still, the pain lances through Penelope. 

She blinks away the tears clinging to her lashes and hesitantly glances back to the siphoner. Josie is playing with the fingers of Penelope’s hand that she still holds in her lap. As if she could feel Penelope’s eyes, Josie darts her eyes from the hand in her lap to prompt her to continue.There was no pity in her eyes, just regret and self-recrimination.

“No. So I gave you something to fight _against_. I tried to push you into fighting for yourself but it was still just me being selfish.”

Josie begins to move away from her and Penelope bows her head, accepting that this is it. This is the true end to anything that they could have had. She braces herself with a shaky breath and stands to leave.

She only makes it to her feet before a hand is darting out and clamping around her wrist. 

Josie is kneeling on the bed, Penelope is too taken aback to read anything from her face. She never expected for Josie to still want her when she told her about The Merge, or why she had ended things between them. 

But here was Josie, sliding her grip from her wrist down to her hand and pulling the witch with her as she lay back onto the pillows.

“You promised not to leave.” Josie throatily reminds her.

“Guess I did.” The witch rasps as she crawls up the bed to join Josie.

Josie pulls her until they’re both facing each other, hand intertwined between them. They stay like that for what feels like hours, just memorising the lines of the others face.

Josie wets her lips as she lifts a hand to brush strands of Penelope's hair from her face. Penelope shivers and feels the goosebumps rise as Josie leaves her hand resting on her neck, thumb stroking along her jaw.

“You should have just told me," she says quietly, eyes fixed firmly on her own.

“Josie.” Penelope manages weakly. There was a plea in her voice but even she couldn't put into words what it was exactly.

Tears build in Josie's eyes as she lets her eyes roam over Penelope's face. “I only- _we_ only have six years left.”

Penelope closes her eyes to stop the brunette from seeing the tears building. She opens her eyes and just knows that there's a desperate plea in them. She shakes her head insistently and desperately holds Josie's hand in place with her own, as if she could keep Josie with her if she could just hold on tight enough.

“Don’t. Don’t say that.”

Josie's smile is etched in tragedy and Penelope bites down on her bottom lip to stop herself from letting out the sob building, “Penelope, you know I can’t kill Lizzie. And even if I did, it wouldn’t be _me_ anymore.”

Penelope closes her eyes as if that could stop her from seeing the truth of Josie's words. She lets out a small sob as she feels Josie's hands gently wipe away the tears escaping. Penelope forces herself to open her eyes and Josie's there to meet her. Smiling sadly and with tears rolling down her own face, she continues, “Either way, the girl you love would still be gone.”

“We can stop it,” Penelope swears. Josie's smile shifts and she knows that the siphoner doesn't believe her.

Penelope's tears begin to dry as she locks herself onto a new goal. She holds tighter to the siphoner's hand and continues desperately, “There has to be a way to stop it.”

“That’s what mum has been doing all these years, hasn’t she? Looking for a way out of this.” Josie asks quietly, more to herself than to Penelope.

Penelope's eyes harden with her new purpose. “I can help.”

“Penelope.” Josie sounds scared but Penelope doesn't hear it, too lost in the hope she's clinging to.

The witch sits up quickly, detangling herself from Josie's hands. She turns back to Josie, a thin layer of hope barely hiding the desperation breaking through.

“I can help her. We can find something, there has to be _something_.”

Josie sits up to join Penelope and recaptures the witch's hand. She draws Penelope's hand to her chest and questions the girl incredulously, “You think if I won’t let Lizzie die in six years, I’d let you run off and die now instead?”

“I can’t sit and do nothing while you just fade away, Josie!”

“You won’t be doing nothing. You’ll be here, with me, and we’ll be _happy_.” Penelope's face crumples as Josie chokes out the words. Josie lets out a ragged breath before she sobs out the rest, "For as long as we can.”

“It won’t be long enough. Not for me.”

“I know." The siphoner chuckles humorlessly, "God, do I know. But it’s all we have left.”

“It can’t be. You deserve so much more.” Penelope rests her hand on the side of Josie's neck, stroking the siphoner's cheek with her thumb. Her mouth forms a shaky smirk as she tries to chase the angst from Josie's face, “Even _Lizzie_ deserves more. Maybe not by much-”

Josie pulls away with a laugh and slaps at her shoulder, “You’re such an ass.”

Penelope rolls with the siphoner's gentle shove, letting herself fall back against the bed. A surprised squeak escapes Josie when the witch drags her down with her. She lands on Penelope with a huff and the two of them collapse into laughter as they playfully shove at each other.

Managing to break away from the siphoner’s long arms, Penelope pauses as she hovers over Josie. Taking a moment to just let herself take in everything about the brunette. Josie’s lips are stretched into a wide smile as she laughs, her hair is wild and splayed across the bed and her soulful eyes sparkle up at Penelope.

Josie’s laughter settles into a sated grin that steals the air from the witch’s lungs. Before she knows what’s happening, Penelope feels the honesty clawing its way out of her throat.

“I love you, Josie.” 

Josie’s face stutters and freezes in shock. Penelope jolts and her eyes widen with her own shock. She could never be surprised that she loves Josie, that’s been a known constant in her life for too long, but she definitely hadn’t been planning on telling Josie about it so soon.

Penelope’s sneaky, traitorous heart leaps into her throat. Unable to look away from Josie’s eyes but too scared to try to read them. Penelope was left with no choice but to continue her accidental stroke of honesty. 

She forces her heart back down from her throat and brings a hand to intertwine with Josie’s, “With all of my heart, everything that I am, I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Josie replies wholeheartedly. 

A slow smile stretches over Penelope’s face while the dread settled onto her shoulders is temporarily relieved by unescapable joy at Josie’s admission. 

Testing her self-control, Penelope rests her forehead against Josie’s. She _aches_ to kiss her but knows that once she does, she wouldn’t be able to leave Josie for the world. Not just because she wouldn’t want to, but because she knew that that siphoner would never let her. Space is crucial when she’s arguing with Josie because once the brunette is close enough, she’s all Penelope can focus on and everything else just falls away.

She struggles with herself but manages to put some space between her and the brunette, “I’ll come back. You know I’ll come back to you.”

“That’s just it! We don’t know!” Josie cries, desperately clinging to the witch’s hand as she pleads with her, “We have no idea how dangerous this is, Pen!”

“Maybe not but I know that no matter how dangerous it is, it would be worth it if it helps you.” She says simply.

Josie scowls at the witch’s casual shrug. Penelope’s brow furrows as the grip on her hand tightens and loosens, she throws a curious look and finds that it’s because Josie’s hand is flexing rhythmically. The witch grimaces slightly and tries to sneak a peek up at Josie’s face.

Josie’s jaw muscles work as she clenches and unclenches her teeth while glaring at Penelope. Penelope opens her mouth to try and get ahead of the angry speech she’s about to receive but she’s cut off. 

Josie closes her eyes and tries for a calming breath. When she opens her eyes, there’s still anger but not enough where Penelope is mentally mapping the nearest fire exit, “Then I’ll come with you.” 

Penelope sputters and tries to argue but a determined Josie just talks over her, “We can all go; you, me, Hope and Lizzie.” 

Josie builds steam as she goes, determination driving her excitement as her plan begins to take shape. She shuffles closer to Penelope and the witch finds herself being sucked into the plan for their future that Josie envisions, “Summer break is right around the corner. Mum’s been telling us how much she misses us. Now that we know about the merge, we can help her.”

“Your parents would never allow it. They kept this from you to keep you safe.” Penelope reminds pointedly. The entire reason they’re even in this mess is because Josie’s parents were keeping the twins in the dark for their own safety. They wouldn’t do a sudden backflip on that now just because Josie pouts at them.

Josie waves off Penelope’s reminder airily, “Lizzie and I can argue Mum into agreeing. Plus, she can’t really talk because she was doing way more dangerous stuff when she was our age.” 

Penelope frowns, eyes wide with concerned skepticism, “It also got her killed and turned into a vampire.”

“Well, we’re not going to mention _that_ part.”

“Right. And what about your dad?”

Josie almost pauses before the shadow of a scowl crosses her face and she carries on bitterly, “Hope can tell him. He’ll take it better coming from someone he’s close to.”

“Uh huh.” Penelope cocks an eyebrow at the siphoner and the underlying bitterness in her tone and expression, “We going to talk about that?”

Penelope watches as the brunette considers it for a moment before shaking her head and smiling at her, “Not tonight. It can wait for our great summer road trip.”

“You mean the double date vacation where we’re hunting down an ancient and deadly curse?” Penelope mutters sarcastically as she follows Josie’s beckons to lie back down. Once she’s settled in, she realises Josie is staring at her with an odd beaming smile. 

She casts a quick glance around but can’t find an obvious reason for the siphoner’s exuberant joy. Not understanding why Josie would be so ecstatic about a snarky quip she frowns up at the siphoner, “What?”

“You called it a date.”

Penelope’s eyes widen slightly, the corners of her mouth twitching up into a disbelieving grin as Josie practically vibrates with joy all because Penelope had implied that they would be on a date. Her grin morphs into a teasing smirk when Josie either can’t -or won’t- control her beaming smile.

“I just told you I love you.” Penelope says, no small amount of exasperation in her voice. 

Josie rolls her eyes. She continues to smile widely at the raven-haired witch. “Yeah but you also just said that us spending the entire summer with my sister, my mother, and my best tribrid friend, is going to be a _date_.”

Penelope scoffs and rolls her eyes, ignoring the blush climbing up her neck, “I also said we would be hunting down an ancient and deadly curse.”

“On our summer long date.” Josie sing-songs with a bright smile. Penelope groans and flops onto the bed to bury her face into the pillows. Josie laughs as she props her head on her hand and continues to tease the witch, “Is it just going to be one long continuous date or will it be broken up into multiple smaller dates? Just so I know how many outfits to pack.”

“Oh my god. Don’t pack any.” Comes the muffled grumble from Penelope. The witch turns her head to the side just enough to give a highly amused Josie an unimpressed glare.

“Miss Park!” Josie cries, scandalised. She clutches a hand to her chest to complete the effect. Penelope wants to die. “Not before our first date!”

Penelope snorts and rolls onto her back, throwing an arm over her eyes dramatically, “I change my mind, I hate you.” 

Josie giggles and stretches out next to the witch. Penelope glares at her when the siphoner dances her fingers along her stomach teasingly. Josie just laughs and sets her chin on Penelope’s chest as she bats her eyes up at the witch, “Hate me enough to take me on a summer long date, maybe.”

Penelope closes her eyes and tries to stifle the smile being around Josie always gives her, “Go to sleep.”

“I can’t now. I just got asked out on a date by this girl I’m kind of into.” Josie exaggerates her pout while dancing her fingers up Penelope’s sides.

“‘Kind of’?”

Penelope opens her eyes and lifts her head up to raise a skeptical eyebrow at the siphoner. Flicking her eyes to indicate the position they’re currently in, with Josie practically splayed over the witch. 

Josie just smiles innocently. She pushes herself up to hover over the witch, dropping her head just low enough to split Penelope’s attention between listening to her and darting glances at her lips.

“Well, don’t tell her before our first date but I’m kind of in love with her.”

“You’re in luck, Jojo,” Penelope breathes with a smile, “I have it on good authority that she’s in love with you too.”

She darts her head up as Josie swoops down and she could swear that there are fireworks.

Or the school is being attacked again. Equally possible.

Even if they are under attack though, Penelope will not be moving an inch. Not when Josie’s kissing her like this. 

They finally break away for air and Penelope can’t stop herself from laughing. She’s just too happy. Josie joins her and if a few tears escape, then that’s nobody’s business.

Josie lays her head down over Penelope’s heart and slides her arms around Penelope’s middle, pulling herself as close as she can.

“You’re staying, right?”

Penelope clings to the siphoner just as tightly and presses a gentle kiss on Josie’s forehead. 

“Nowhere else I’d rather be.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was fun


End file.
